Heikki Veli Uolevi Sarmanto was born on June 22, 1939, in Helsinki, Finland. He studied at the Sibelius Academy before continuing his education at Berklee College of Music in Boston during the late 1960s. His career began with participation in an international jazz composition contest with Opuscule. Sarmanto won the prestigious Yrjö award as Finland's Jazz Musician of the Year in 1970 and received awards at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1971. He co-founded the UMO Jazz Orchestra and contributed to jazz education at the Sibelius Academy. Sarmanto released over forty recordings, including Sarmanto: Suomi - A Symphonic Jazz Poem For Orchestra (1984), which was later performed at Carnegie Hall in 1988.
