Eero Tarasti

Eero Aarne Pekka Tarasti (born September 27, 1948 in Helsinki), is a Finnish musicologist and semiologist, currently serving as Professor of Musicology at the University of Helsinki.

He received his Ph.D. degree at the University of Helsinki in 1978, writing his dissertation Myth and Music on Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius, and Igor Stravinsky. Then, Tarasti served at the University of Jyväskylä between 1979–1984, where he was appointed Professor of Arts Education in 1979 and Professor of Musicology in 1983. In 1984 he took the position of Professor of Musicology in Helsinki, succeeding Erik Tawaststjerna. Tarasti has held posts as Director or President in several semiotic and musical societies and since the 1970s has written and edited numerous books encompassing a semiotic approach to music. He has been the President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies (2004–2014), and the Director of the International Semiotics Institute.

Eero Tarasti is married to Eila Marita Elisabet Tarasti, pianist and musicologist

Eero Tarasti went to school at Helsinki Normal Lyceum, the classical line , where he became baccalaureat in 1967 (with six laudaturs): Then he studied at the University of Helsinki 1967-1975, first theoretical philosophy, then sociology and aesthetics and, at the end, musicology. He got his Ph.D. at the University of Helsinki 1978 with the thesis entitled Myth and Music (published in 1979 by Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin). At the same time he enrolled at music studies (piano) at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki 1967-1975. Among his piano teachers were Liisa Pohjola, Timo Mikkilä and Tapani Valsta. Earlier he had studied privately piano with Kaisa Arjava.

He pursued music studies in Vienna 1972 with Noel Flores and then in Paris 1973 with Jules Gentil (Ecole Normale de Musique), with Jacques Février 1974-75: he continued his music studies in Rio de Janeiro with Heitor Alimonda (1976) and then in the US with Walter Robert and Joseph Rezits in Bloomington (1987); in Helsinki he followed pianopedagogical course by professor Gunnar Hallhagen, and private course by Jan Hoffmann. He got the grant of French Government for doctoral studies in Paris, in 1974-75 (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, professor A.J. Greimas as his supervisor); he also followed teaching at Collège de France, and met a.o. Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes. In Rio de Janeiro 1976 (Universidade Federal) he pursued anthropological studies as an awardee of Rotary International.

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