Eero Pitkälä was born and raised in the national kantele capital, Haapavesi.  Eero Pitkälä has played the kantele by ear in the Haapavesi traditional style almost all his life.  Eero studied with the old Haapavesi kantele masters.  Eero and other family members won an international competition in Russia in their early  youth.  Eero has since earned a degree in direction of traditional kantele and currently directs evening  kantele classes in Haapavesi and surrounding cities and towns.  He specialises in church music, patriotic music and folk songs that have been native to the region for decades.  Eero’s work was the basis for an EU-Leader project around kantele in the area entitled Soiva Puu  (Ringing Wood) to support the local kantele tradition and the founding of kantele courses in the Haapavesi lyceum, the only such school in  Finland to offer courses in kantele.   He also composes for kantele.  The national kantele organisation,  Kanteleliitto has awarded him their Golden Kantele for work with traditional kantele.