Composer-pianist Heikki Sarmanto is undoubtedly the most internationally distinguished ambassador of Finnish jazz. As early as 1961, he won a prize at the International Competition of Jazz Composition in Minneapolis, MN. In 1971 he would later win top prizes at the Montreux Jazz Festival in both piano and combo categories. Some of his key works include New Hope Jazz Mass, which was received with unequivocal praise at the opening of Saint Peter's Church in New York, and also Suomi Symphony, which premiered to rave reviews at Carnegie Hall in 1988. Mr.Sarmanto was chosen by Sonny Rollins to arrange and conduct his Saxophone Concerto, which premiered and was televised in Tokyo in 1986. Sarmanto has toured the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa and continues to expand his horizons.

Splitting his time between his home town of Helsinki and Brussels, Sarmanto describes himself as a tenacious trailblazer. He was the first Finnish jazz musician to study at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston MA. He was instrumental in founding the internationally lauded UMO Jazz Orchestra and he was appointed its artistic director in 1999. Sarmanto headed the Jazz Studio at the Sibelius Academy, the highest institute of Finnish music and now home to the foremost jazz department in the nation. The list of merits seems endless. In addition to being an innovator, he is an unusually multidimensional composer. For over thirty years, his personal brand of music has spawned a multitude of works in the genre of jazz or in concert music; sometimes the combination of the two.

Sarmanto’s true passion is free improvisation. His musical formats include, solo works, chamber music, choral and orchestral works from oratorios to opera. His prolific song writing (hundreds of songs) was honored by the legendary Helen Merrill, who recorded Sarmanto's songs on the album "Carrousel". His recordings include, "Smuggled Icon"(1989), songs set to modern Finnish poetry; "Hearts"(1995), a massive work for symphonic and jazz orchestras; "Deja Vu"(2000), featuring Juhani Aaltonen(tenor sax) and Art Farmer(fluegelhorn); "Maija,the Voice"(1980), featuring Finnish vocal virtuoso Maija Hapuoja. These are prime examples of how he composes his music.

Sarmanto's collaboration with Brazil's great lyricist, Fernando Brant and the gifted guitarist-arranger, Juarez Moreira, resulted in the beautiful CD "A Lua Luara". It featured one of Brazil's top vocalists, Claudya de Oliveira. Sarmanto is currently working with the famous French music publisher Alphonse Leduc, to produce a CD and sheet music of his newest work, "Impressions-Paris", which includes 20 solo piano works. It includes pianist Ilmari Raikkonen and will be released in 2007.

Sarmanto is considered one of Europe's most prolific and recorded jazz musicians. Poetry has always been a major source of inspiration for him. He is also a self proclaimed defender of melody. That explains his cornucopia of vocal music composed to the texts of numerous Finnish poets, and the Americans; Robert Shure, Aina Swan Cutler, Gregg Freelon and Kim Rich. His personal motto is taken from the last verse of Nightingale Suite by beloved Finnish poet Aaro Hellaakoski: "A receiver only am I, I resound".