Be Our Guest with Johanna Telander

Johanna Telander is a decorated singer, composer, and lyricist, and the creative force behind Kalevala – The Musical. She currently splits her time creating music, continuing her prolific voice-over career (Volvo National), and parenting two delightful, energetic children with her husband. With a Bachelor’s degree from Capital Conservatory of Music, and after a decades-long career as a singer, where she has had the privilege of working in such extraordinary settings as the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, the United Nations, The Lincoln Center, and The Bitter End, Johanna has diversified her skills and vocal style, drawing upon influences from jazz, pop, and folk, and now to the story-telling world of musical theatre. Johanna left her homeland of Finland for the United States to pursue her dreams, despite a lucrative record deal with Universal Music and a hit song. In addition to her Bachelor's, she holds a performance degree from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.  In her side hustle as an actress, she has appeared in nearly fifty independent film projects (some of them featuring her original music). But, it is within the creative process of music where she feels most at home. Kalevala the Musical is her first large-scale musical production and, hopefully, the first of many to follow. Kalevala The Musical is a story inspired by the national epic poem of Finland. Passed down from generation to generation, these tales were finally collected in a book of poems by Elias Lonnrot in 1835. Widely cherished across the world, Kalevala has been a source of inspiration to many fantasy authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien.   Website: https://www.kalevalamusical.com/