Born in Finland (Scandinavia/Europe), Sampsa Lopponen drew towards music as a child as though his very soul cried out for the soothing only rhythm can bring. He used anything and everything to create sound. Pots and pans were his first drums, tennis rackets were pressed into service as guitars and by three-years-old, tabletops had become Sampsa’s makeshift keyboards.
Not wanting to deny an obvious prodigy, Sampsa’s parents allowed him to begin piano lessons at the age of six, and guitar lessons at the age of seven. He then began to study music at the prestigious Joensuu Music Conservatory, which is idyllically situated on the bank of the Pielis River in Finland. To this day, Sampsa draws feelings and emotions into his music from the banks of the beautiful river on which he grew up.
By eight-years-old, Sampsa had started his first band, which performed around the town during its inaugural year. He also joined his church choir and youth choir bands that same year. Sampsa Lopponen was often invited to perform during school music events, also. In addition to his ability to read music at very young age, his talent for picking up songs by ear allowed him to accompany singers and take his place alongside those often much older than himself, with amazing musical gifting for one so young.
During high school, Sampsa formed his first rock band and it was then that his gifting as a natural leader truly began to shine. The music director position came quite naturally to him. It has often been said that if you want to know if you are a leader, look behind you to see if anyone is following. In Sampsa’s case, there will always be a great many following this talented musician and leader.
While continuing his fervent studies on both the piano and guitar, Sampsa began to pursue the saxophone as well. He studied fulltime at the Tampere Conservatoire and the Pop-Jazz Conservatoire in Helsinki, Finland.
In 1992, Sampsa moved to New York City to further his musical studies. He accomplished this by being accepted at the internationally renowned Mannes College of Music and the mext year at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He studied jazz and pop music under such notables as Gil Goldstein, Lawrence Feldman, Arnie Lawrence, and Reggie Workman and many others.
It was during this season that he discovered what was to be his true love. The bass guitar. He has played bass guitar as his main instrument ever since then.
Despite the grueling schedule at the New School for Music, Sampsa, a devout Christian, also joined the Times Square Church band during his first year in New York. The Times Square Church is a multi-national and multi-racial church right on Broadway, in the old Mark Hellinger Theatre. Times Square Church was founded by David Wilkerson and is the home church for about 8,000 members. Soon after joining the band, Sampsa Lopponen was asked to begin to prepare music arrangements for the band and the choirs. By assembling hundreds of rhythm, horn and choir arrangements, Sampsa gained priceless experience. The majority of the music was black gospel, but there was often many other styles, as well. Five distinct services each week assured plenty of playing, planning and music arranging/writing. Soon he was asked to take over the youth choir and the audio department. At the age of 29, after bringing remarkable improvements to all the areas he had been responsible for, Sampsa was asked to take over the entire music department. Sampsa Lopponen was the Director of the Music Ministry at the Times Square Church from 1997-2000.
His innate ability to create, envision and plan in addition to having an extremely accurate gift that allows him to pinpoint weaknesses in operating systems and procedures enabled him to make tremendous improvements in the areas of quality, productivity and fruitfulness throughout the entire music ministry. One of which being the band Sampsa’s formed, in which played such names as tenor saxophonist Todd Williams (Wynton Marsalis), two time Emmy Award winner and five time nominee as well as ASCAP Film & Television Music Award winner John Wineglass, Dove Award winner and long time friend Jukka Palonen and Peter Rodriguez, current band member of David Foster Artist Peter Cincotti.
During his time in New York, Sampsa Lopponen met producer Joe Sicurella. Joe is one of the jingle producer giants in New York City. Sampsa and Joe worked together in New York’s top recording studios and on several projects. Sampsa also joined Award Winning producer legend Loris Holland (Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Layryn Hill) on a couple of projects. In 1998 Sampsa met a superior rising star, tenor Michael Amante. Sampsa and Amante worked together on a couple of projects. Two years later Amante achieved Billboard Magazine Midline Classical Artist #1 position.
In the summer of 2000, Sampsa moved back to Europe due to two family tragedies. He took a couple of years off from making music but then did some music projects in Europe.
Returning to the States, Sampsa and his beautiful wife Marja moved to Nashville TN in 2005. Sampsa teamed up with Michael John and his music production company Epic Soul. Epic Soul is an award-winning company working with nearly every aspect of sound and music production for corporate and individual clients. The founder of Epic Soul, Michael John, writes and produces jingles, theme songs, and soundtracks for renowned artists, network television shows, motion pictures, and commercials.
In 2006, Sampsa accepted an interim Music Director position with Gregory Dickow Ministries and the Life Changers International Church in Chicago IL. Life Changers International is a multi-cultural church with two campuses and a $27 million complex, with over 5,000 members.
During this period in Chicago, Sampsa was honored to work with and become close friends with the legendary Cornell Thigpen. Well known as one of the most exciting keyboard players in America today, Cornell Thigpen has worked with such industry greats as Chaka Khan, Mary J. Blige, Babyface, and Stevie Nicks among countless others.
In 2008 Sampsa and his wife Marja moved their family to Los Angeles, CA, where he believed he would be better able to extend his studies of the internet, and more specifically, internet marketing. Sampsa studied under the tutelage of the great internet guru Koz Khosravani, as well as many others. Sampsa also took time to further developed his studies of human behavior and the mind.
Sampsa’s natural curiosity of human behavior and the mind have always driven him to study and ask questions that most people ignore. As a Christian seeking and living the truth is always his first priority. He uses his approach of simple honesty as a tool to help people to find their true purpose in life.
“Once you help a person to discover their purpose, you never have to motivate them again.”
“Honesty may be even painful at times, but it is always the best approach and we will always get the most satisfying outcome by being thoroughly honest starting with ourselves, and then with others as well.”
Also during 2008, Sampsa Lopponen joined The Beautiful Criminal, a Los Angeles based pop/rock band, as their interim bass player.
That same year Sampsa started planning and to bring to fruition his long time passionate dream of helping underprivileged children. His charity foundation to raise money to help children around the world is named The Music 4 Hunger Foundation. Sampsa is blessed to have Cornell Thigpen on board as a Principle Founder. Music 4 Hunger Foundation is producing recorded music, charity concerts and other fundraising events. Every day approximately to 18,000 children will die due to hunger alone. This should not be. The mission of the Music 4 Hunger Foundation is to help under privileged children throughout the world.
Click Here to Visit The Music 4 Hunger Foundation Website
“There is enough wealth in the world for every child to have their basic needs met.”
