Main instruments:
Morrison Digital Trumpet
Piano & Keys
Tenor Recorder
Heikki “Mike” Koskinen is a recording artist, composer, and educator currently living in San Francisco. Koskinen was chosen in “Rytmi” magazine critics polls as Finland’s top jazz trumpet player in the 1970’s. He left his native Finland to study jazz at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1973. Among his teachers at Berklee were Herb Pomeroy, Gary Burton and Michael Gibbs. He also studied privately with Charlie Banacos. He later moved to San Francisco in 1977.
Koskinen is the recipient of several Finnish composing grants, recorded several albums, and won awards as an innovative children’s music teacher. His Bay Area bands, with Heikki on trumpet and piano, have featured such musicians as Hadley Caliman, Steve Heckman, Mark Levine, Joe Bonner, Benny Green, Larry Hancock and Michael Spiro.
His main instruments these days are piano, the Morrison Digital Trumpet as well as the tenor recorder. Besides performing, he teaches music in the Bay Area, writes music for media and groups of all sizes. He served as coordinator and host of the local radio program, “Studio Finland” for ten years. Koskinen performs in the San Francisco Bay Area Finnish community with the Kaleva All Stars band, often featuring his original arrangement of old and new Finnish songs. The group was recently featured at FinnFest 2011 in San Diego. Heikki’s latest project is “Studio Finland Trio” with Steve Heckman on woodwinds’s and Noah Schenker on bass.
with a big band in San Jose
With E.W. Wainwright at Bajones
Finnish-American Heritage Center