KYL in English


KYL is traditional but youthful academic male voice choir with high ambition and great spirit.

Helsinki Academic Male Choir KYL ("Kauppakorkeakoulun Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat") is the male voice choir of the Student Union of Aalto University School of Business. The choir consists mostly of present and former students of the school. A traditional yet virile league of singers, the choir has been an energetic and well-recognized part of the Finnish music establishment since 1949.

Throughout the years KYL has conquered the world and provided its listeners with a wide repertoire of both Finnish national romantic as well as more modern and lighter music — not to mention serenades, drinking songs and traditional Christmas concerts.

The choir performs frequently in Finland and travels abroad approximately once a year. Over the last years KYL has visited e.g. Ireland (2019), Iceland (2016), Spain (2015), Japan (2014), Norway (2012), England (2011), the USA and Canada (2010), Germany (2009) and Spain (2009).

KYL has won numerous international competitions, for example the 2011 International Male Voice Choir Competition in Cornwall, England, and 2010 International Leevi Madetoja Male Voice Choir Competition in Espoo, Finland. KYL was also awarded with the title Finnish Male Choir of the Year in 1998 by Finnish Male Choir Association.

The conductor of KYL since January 2018, Visa Yrjölä (b. 1992), received his Master of Music degree in choral conducting from the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts, Helsinki) in June 2018. He has also done exchange studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Yrjölä has attended several masterclasses organized by Tenso, The European Network for Professional Chamber Choirs, working with Cappella Amsterdam, the Helsinki Chamber Choir, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir and the Croatian Radiotelevision Choir.

Besides the artistic leadership of KYL, Visa Yrjölä conducts two award-winning groups, the Kaamos Chamber Choir and the Euga Male Voice Choir. In 2013, the Tampere Vocal Music Festival awarded him a special prize for a young and promising conductor, and in June 2018 he was awarded the best conductor’s prize at the Bratislava Choir Festival.

KYL in Temppeliaukio Church

Concert tickets and recordings


Concert tickets

Concert tickets are mostly sold via Tiketti, Ticketmaster or similar service or directly by choir members. Please follow KYL.fi or our social media channels for further information about upcoming ticket sales.

Recordings

KYL's CDs are available for purchase at KYL online shop. The orders will be processed in couple of days and sent with standard postal service. The delivery time will depend on your location. The recordings are also available for purchase and listen in many digital music stores such as iTunes and Amazon and streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio.

KYL in Helsinki Music Centre

Ordering KYL


Are you having a ceremony, party, customer event or other important occasion to which you are looking for some stylish but interesting program? Consider KYL! A group of young singers in their tailcoats is a classical act that surely makes an impact on your guests.

If you want to learn more about ordering KYL, just contact the choir's intendent intendent@kyl.fi. Let's make your event memorable together!

KYL's quartet

Joining KYL


Are you a non-Finnish speaker wishing to join KYL? That is most certainly possible, and the choir currently have couple of non-native persons as its members. However, before applying, there are couple of things good to know.

A major portion of KYL's repertoire is in Finnish — we also have songs in English, Swedish, French, Latin, Russian — and we put emphasis on correct pronunciation and articulation, so willingness to learn pronunciation in new languages (including Finnish) is a must. The language used in our rehearsals and internal communications is Finnish, so it understanding Finnish is certainly a plus.

If you want to join KYL, please contact the choir's president.