Brahekatu street 9, Raahe Music School, window facing the street
The Raahe Music Institute began operating in 1973. Andras Fekete worked as a teacher there from its inception. He taught piano and double bass from 1973 to 1978 and from 1980 to 1990.
The Raahe Music School began operating in 1973. From the outset, its staff has been international. Polish teachers made an artistic and pedagogical contribution to the music school's activities at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s.
One of the music school's original teachers was Andras Fekete, who was originally from Hungary and won over the people of Raahe with his cheerful Finnish and amazing musical talent. He worked as a teacher from the time the school was founded. He taught piano and double bass from 1973 to 1978 and from 1980 to 1990.
From Hungary to Raahe
"My father, Andras Fekete, was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 24, 1931. The family consisted of my mother Ilona and my father, who was a violinist and spoke nine languages fluently, but I don't remember his name. The family broke up when my father was two years old, when his biological father left the family and moved to America, apparently in search of a better life. After that, my mother's new husband, Janos, was more of a father to my father than his biological father had ever been.
My mother Ilona played the piano, and my grandmother was a skilled violinist who used her talent when working with children. Music, especially classical music, was therefore a strong presence in my father's childhood and youth.
The family wanted my father to become an aircraft mechanic, but early on, music led him toward a future career as a musician, pianist, and piano teacher. According to family lore, he studied classical music in Budapest, but after moving to Raahe, he continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in order to qualify as a piano teacher.
After finishing school, their studies, and military service, my father and his three friends formed a small dance band called The Paprikas. At that time, it was considered a real stroke of luck to get a job abroad, but that's what happened to them, and the band got to travel from Hungary to Finland. The year was 1966. The Paprikas got contracts with hotels in several cities and usually played for about a month in each city. The familiar 'work cities' were: Tampere, Jyväskylä, Turku, Pori, Joensuu, Lahti, Kouvola, Lappeenranta, Kotka, Hamina, Oulu, Kemi, and Rovaniemi. In many cities, he also found like-minded musicians with whom he could play jazz, his favorite musical genre.
In Oulu, my father met my mother, Maj, who had come with her friends to spend the evening and dance at the hotel restaurant where The Paprikas were playing.
Love blossomed as they met. The situation was by no means easy, as my mother Maj was a single parent with four minor children. In the absence of a common spoken language, dictionaries were used to aid in conversation. My father had an excellent head for languages, which he had inherited from his biological father. He began studying Finnish and learned it fairly quickly. My father was strong-willed and willing to put in a lot of effort if he wanted to learn or achieve something.
My mother and father's wedding was held in Raahe on December 22, 1967, in the presence of their close friends and family. They would have liked to be married in Raahe Church, but my father's Catholicism, a different denomination, made this difficult.
They had been thinking about where to settle down for a long time and had discussed different cities, but my mother loved Raahe and had her own hat shop there, so in the end they decided to stay there. My father got a job as a piano teacher at the Raahe Music School. My father was extremely talented and lived and breathed music, composing, arranging, and organizing his own piano concerts.
Every summer in July, we would travel to Budapest for four weeks to visit my grandparents and my father's friends. My father also had a daughter, Andrea, from a previous marriage, whom we always met when we were there in the summer. My sister Andrea and I were nine years apart in age, and when we got to know each other better as adults, we realized that we were very similar and very much like our father. We were warm-hearted, humorous, strong, and at the same time sensitive. (Text: Ilona Salminen, née Fekete)
More information
Satu Kallio: Soivat vuosikymmenet – 50 vuotta taideopetusta Raahen musiikkiopistossa 1973–2023. Rannikon Laatupaino Oy v. 2024,
Back to the front page of the Old Town Raahe Advent Calendar