Désirée Saarela
Désirée lives with her family in Österbotten, the region of western Finland, where at some places it can take a few hours to reach the next house. In that rural solitude she writes her songs both in Finnish and Swedish. She holds diploma as a music teacher from the University of Jakobstad as well as from the folk music department or the renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
She is part of Scandinavia's prolific singer-songwriter scene. The history of the Finnish-Swedish people plays an important role, but she also deals with explosive episodes of contemporary history, such as the Finnish-Russian Winter War, in her music. The album "Brandliljor och Eldsjälar" tells about the period from 1939 to 1940 through individual stories. Recently Désirée Saarela has released an album with the Sicilian clarinetist Luca Bordonaro. Being a genre-crossing artist, she will meet English musician Hannah James (AIR in 2020) and Austrian singer Eva Klampfer aka Lylit for a new trio program at the festival Glatt&Verkehrt.
Citizenship: Finland
Date of Birth: 1980
Lives in: Sundby
Residence: July 2023
