The Duet of a Lifetime: Viola Turpeinen and William Syrjälä
This 1994 WDSE-TV documentary, from the series Album, explores the enduring musical legacy of Viola Turpeinen and her husband, William Syrjälä, who frequently performed in northeast Minnesota.
Turpeinen was “the best-known Finnish-American accordionist of her time,” according to a biography on musicforaccordion.com. “She toured widely in Finnish communities and made a large number of recordings with the violinist John Rosendahl and her own orchestra. She was probably the first woman in the world to record accordion solos.”
Syrjälä was born in Finland and grew up in Cloquet, where he met Turpeinen. They married in 1933.
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