Lari Kotilainen formed the band Jytäjyrsijät together with Sami Iivonen in 1996. The band, which makes rock music aimed at children, has toured actively in Finland and Russia and has released three albums. Their songs have been translated into Russian and sign language.

Over the years Kotilainen's second profession, music,  has acquired many of the aspects of his day job working with the Finnish language. Together with children’s author Reetta Niemelä, illustrator Linda Bondestam and translator Anna Sidorova, Kotilainen has developed educational entertainment for children that combines music, literature and visual arts with language teaching. The team has toured Russia, Estonia and Ukraine to discuss Finland, the Finnish language, and other cultures. They have also created a light-hearted card series aimed at children and adults alike called Finnish in six minutes, which has been translated into English, Russian, Swedish and Estonian.

Next, Kotilainen would like to a write a work of children’s non-fiction based on a series of illustrated columns on linguistics he wrote for Vinski magazine.

Linkit

• Official website for the band Jytäjyrsijät
• Lari Kotilainen somewhere in the Urals giving a lesson on how Finnish animals speak
• Jytäjyrsijät in Finnish and sign language