HANCOCK, MI – The September 20, 2007, inauguration of Finlandia University President Philip Johnson will include choral music composed by former Suomi College music director Martti Nisonen (1891-1946).

Suomi College music director from 1923 to 1946, Nisonen, was, according to a 1982 tribute, a prolific composer, dynamic performer, and beloved teacher. His choral composition “Olen Niinkuin Pilvi” (I’m as a cloud) will be performed by the Inaugural Celebration Chorus.

Nisonen was born in 1891 in Pori, Finland. His first music teacher was his father, Heikki. He formally studied music in Viipuri and Helsinki, Finland, and Berlin. In 1922 he and his wife and children moved from Pori to Hancock, Mich. For the next 24 years, until his death in 1946, Nisonen was the driving force behind the very successful Suomi College music department.

He taught all the subjects a music major might take, including Music Theory, Composition, Orchestration, Conducting, Music History, and Music Appreciation. He gave individual lessons in piano, organ, and voice to students and community members, directed the college choir, and played for daily chapel services. He conducted music workshops and frequently performed at church and community gatherings covering a wide geographic area.

Throughout his tenure at Suomi College Nisonen wrote and composed many poems, plays, children’s songs and hymns, operas, oratorios, symphonies, choral arrangements, and sacred cantatas.

The Inaugural Celebration Chorus, formed especially to perform at Johnson’s inauguration and installation, is directed by Greg Campbell. Campbell is the choir director at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and teaches at Houghton High School.

The special choir comprises the choirs of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Hancock, Grace Lutheran Church, South Range, other churches, community members Bill Francis, Norma Nominelli, Barry Pegg, Dean Woodbeck, and Chris Schwartz, and faculty, staff, and student volunteers from Finlandia University.

The installation ceremony for President Johnson begins at 3:00 p.m. at the university’s Paavo Nurmi Center, followed at 4:15 p.m. by a reception at Finlandia Hall.

For additional information please call the President’s Office at 906-487-7201.