Eero Saunamäki is Finland’s best-known recorder player who has performed as the soloist of over ten Finnish symphony orchestras. He is also a saxophone player, singer and a band leader and works as the executive producer of the BRQ Vantaa Early Music Festival and as a teacher at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. In the Guards Band, the Representative Orchestra of the President of the Republic of Finland, Saunamäki has been working for almost twenty years.

As a recorder soloist, Saunamäki has collaborated with several first-rate conductors, such as John Storgårds and Dima Slobodeniouk. He has given the first public performance of over 40 compositions, the most notable of which include the recorder concertos of Kalevi Aho (2021), Jouni Hirvelä (2018), Jukka Tiensuu (2017) and Juha Pisto (2011). The recording of Aho’s concerto was released in September 2023 by the international record label BIS. Saunamäki has also acted as the leader of school concert series organized by the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, and on spring 2023 he did his conducting debut with the Vaasa City Orchestra. He has played as an assistant for symphony orchestras with both of his instruments, as well.

Eero Saunamäki is an active chamber musician who has performed at a variety of events, both at Finnish festivals and abroad. He plays the baritone saxophone in Saxophone Quartet Aava and collaborates with many musicians as a recorder player. Popular music is also part of Saunamäki’s repertoire: he works with the Guards Combo, a party band that is perhaps best-known from their performances at the Independence Day Reception at the Presidential Palace, Helsinki. Furthermore, he sings and plays the saxophone in other bands.

Saunamäki’s recorder playing can be heard in films and a video game, as well as on his YouTube channel which offers viewers plenty of information on the recorder and the musician’s life. Saunamäki is a founder member in Suomen nokkahuiluseura (the Finnish Recorder Association), and he acted as the chairman of the association for 15 years.

Saunamäki studied at the Sibelius Academy and graduated as a Master of Music in 2010. His master’s degree included two final concert exams, one for each of his instruments. He has also attended various masterclasses abroad and been taught by professors Dan Laurin and Claude Delangle, among others. In addition, Saunamäki has studied pedagogical studies at the University of Helsinki and singing in the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatoire.

His musician career has been supported by numerous foundations and funds. Saunamäki received a one-year grant for artistic work from the government of Finland for the year 2024 and a two-year grant for the years 2025 and 2026 from the Finnish Cultural Foundation.