The Finnish American brass septet “Boys of America” (Ameriikan poijat) will be performing in Northfield, Rochester, and Zumbrota during the weekend of April 26 and 27.  They will start with a pub show at Imminent Brewing on Friday night in Northfield, continue with a concert and young people’s presentation for the Rochester Music Guild on Saturday morning 9:00 and 10:30, and finish with a matinée concert at the State Theatre in Zumbrota at 3:00.

"Poijat" observes its 28th year in 2018 with concerts in Minnesota, following extensive touring recently including to San José, California, Buffalo, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and two weeks in Finland. They have been presenting music in concerts, at ethnic festivals, in regional tours, at music conferences, recreating authentic social dance music along with concert repertoire from a bygone era. “Poijat” was formed in Northfield, Minnesota, in January 1990, by Northfielder Paul Niemistö and made its first concert tour to a Finnish ethnic festival in Florida the next spring, and then made its first trip to Finland in 1992 for the Finnish 75 anniversary/. They returned to Finland last year to help celebrate the Centennial of this Nordic nation.

During the 1980's, Paul Niemistö made contact with many Finnish brass players, thereby discovering this relatively unknown musical tradition. Members of Ameriikan poijat are musicians and teachers are from greater Minnesota, a region where many Nordic settlers arrived, Finns especially in the north. Ameriikan poijat has developed programming around beautiful old concert music and dance arrangements, and has enjoyed wide popularity among Finnish American music lovers and festival goers. Much of the music played by Ameriikan poijat is quite familiar to Finnish immigrants, being many of the same pieces heard played by accordions or dance orchestras. They have released four CDs and also have published their sheet music.