Barbara Christina Elisabeth Helsingius-Koski (née Helsingius; 27 September 1937 – 9 March 2017) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish singer, poet, and Olympic fencer.Helsingius, Barbara. Biografiskt lexikon för Finland. Accessed 10 March 2017.
Career She participated at the 1960 Summer Olympics in foil fencing.Barbara Helsingius at sports-reference.com. Accessed 10 March 2017. Trained as a gym teacher, she took her master's degree in pedagogy at Stanford University (1963). Interested in American art and folk music, she began to record, and her first release, Barbara (1966), was a collection of American folk songs, translated to Finnish.
She became well known internationally, and was a member of Visens venner in Norway, of Visans Vänner in Helsinki, and Yrkestrubadurernas Förening in Sweden, part of the Svenska visakademien (1999, as its only Finnish member),Helsingius, Barbara in Uppslagsverket Finland. Accessed 25 March 2017. and the joint Nordic cultural organisation Nordvisa.
From 1968 to 1975, she lived in Oslo with her husband, Henry William "Hank" Koski, a diplomat at the U.S. embassy. She was the mother of two daughters. Her family lives in Espoo, Finland.
Death Helsingius died following a long illness on 9 March 2017 in Espoo, Finland at the age of 79.
Prizes Hambestipendiet, Sweden (1989) Norsk-finsk kulturpris (1993) Nils Ferlin-prisen, (Sweden; 1994) Trubadurprisen (1994) NordVisa-statuetten ("Liv"; 1995) Pro Cultura, Espoo, Finland (1995)
Books
(Schildts) , poetry collection Songs Finland Sings, Warner/Chappel Music Finland (2000)
Discography Barbara (1966; American folk songs in Finnish) (1977; own songs) (1978; Finnish version of the above) (1981; Finnish songs in Norwegian) (1981; own songs) (1982; musical settings of the Finnish poets Aale Tynni and Aila Meriluoto) (1982; Finnish songs in Norwegian) Reflection. Songs from Finland (1984; Finnish songs in English) (1986; her own and Finnish songs in Norwegian) (1986; Finnish-Swedish songs) (1986; Finnish version of above) (1992; Nordic songs in Finnish) (1996; own and Finnish songs in Swedish) Songs Finland Sings (2002; double CD of Finnish poems and songs, classics and songs which she translated to English. Contains 30 artists, including the Serena choir)
References