Russell Pesola (Eb cornet) is emeritus conductor of the Concordia College Band where he joined the faculty in 1975. Previously a public school band director, he has extensive experience as a guest clinician and conductor in the U.S. and internationally. He is currently music director of the Parks Rapids Area Community Band and Prairie Winds.

Pesola received his bachelor's degree in music education from St. Olaf College and has MFA and DMA degrees from the University of Minnesota.

He plays trumpet with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, the Prairie Winds , as well as E- flat cornet with Ameriikan poijat.

Marko Foss (Bb cornet) is a first generation Finnish American who spent some of his childhood in the forests and fields of Finland. He is a graduate of Concordia College and as a trumpet player performs with orchestras in Bloomington(MN) and River Falls(WI). A former band director in rural Minnesota, he now teaches band lessons around St. Paul and lives in the St. Croix Valley near Stillwater, MN.

Brian Borovsky (alto horn) is physics professor at St. Olaf College. Before 2005 he taught at Grinnell College in Iowa.

While a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, Brian was a tour soloist on euphonium with the concert band. In 1997, he won second place in the North American Brass Band Association technical soloist competition, playing euphonium as a member of the  Sheldon Theater Brass Band. Schooled in the art of alto horn by charter Ameriikan Poijat alto hornist Karl Hill Kortesmaki, he performs on the alto  with a mouthpiece handmade for him by Karl.

Paul Niemisto (euphonium) is founder and director of the Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America) Finnish American Brass Ensemble. He is also founder and conductor of the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra, a community symphony orchestra based in Northfield, Minnesota, soon to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary.

He is Associate Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, where he teaches low brass instruments, conducts brass ensembles, band, and teaches courses in music education. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota.

Since 1980, Niemisto has been traveling regularly to Finland, where he has taught at the Lieksa International Brass week; Klemetti Institute Summer Youth Orchestra Course in Orivesi, Chief Conductor and Conducting Instructor at STM Summer Wind Orchestra Institute at Murikka opisto, and has given courses at many Finnish conservatories, including Kuopio, Tampere, Jyväskylä, and Joensuu. He was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Finland in 1999. In February 2000, he was awarded the Finnish Military Music Cross (soltlasmusiikkiristi) for his years of work and research in Finnish bands.

Roger Gomoll (tuba) is an avid pilot and travels around the United States (not always flying) as a public radio consultant. Roger has been associated with Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) for many years. As a tuba player, he is a member of the Sheldon Theater Brass Band of Red Wing. Roger never misses a chance to play with the Steam Calliope Band when it appears annually at New Orleans Mardi Gras.

Denise Pesola (cornet), is native of Northwestern Minnesota, and is AmeriikanPoijat's representative Norwegian. She graduated from Concordia College, and received a Master's degree from the University of Minnesota.

Currently a school band director, she is primarily known in the Moorhead area as a French horn player (for instance, in the Fargo Moorhead Symphony). Denise has done many of the arrangements that Ameriikan Poijat plays.

Tracey Gibbens, a third generation Finnish American, was born on the Minnesota Iron Range in Virginia, and spent most of his youth in Duluth. He has traveled widely as a brass player and conductor, having performed with orchestras and ensembles in Mexico, Italy, as well as several sites in the U.S. He has recently returned to Minnesota from a faculty position with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

He has played with the Duluth-Superior Symphony, Bloomington Symphony, and has been a performer/teacher at several locations in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. He is living in Duluth, and is on the music faculty at  University of Wisconsin -Superior.

OUR DISTINGUISHED EMERITI AND ADJUNCT MEMBERS

DON HAKALA, a founding member or Ameriikan poijat, is an Iron Range native and third generation Finnish American, continues to be an active free lance trumpeter, and a member of the Bloomington Symphony. Some of us still get together with him for an occasional Friday morning breakfast.

ERIC PETERSON, poijat "tuuba" player player for more than ten years, has a brass instrument repair business in Minneapolis, and continues to play with the Sheldon Theatre Brass Band. Eric is also known to make it to the occasional Friday morning breakfast.

KARL HILL- KORTESMAKI a founding member of Ameriikan poijat, is an Upper Peninsula native and third generation Finnish American. Living in Michigan, Karl continues to build world class French horns, and is in demand as a free lance player. Too far to travel for a Minneapolis breakfast.

LARRY ZIMMERMAN, an active trombonist and teacher, has made several concert trips with Ameriikan poijat, playing euphonium, or tenor horn, or alto horn. Larry teaches at several Minnesota colleges. He is principal Trombone with the Duluth Superior Symphony and is a member of Chestnut Brass-Philadelphia. Too busy for breakfast.