Erkki Salmenhaara (12/03/1941 - 19/03/2002), a Finnish composer, born in Helsinki. He studied composition with Joonas Kokkonen at the Sibelius Academy (diploma 1963), and with György Ligeti in Vienna in autumn 1963. He also held a doctorate in musicology (1970) at the University of Helsinki, where he had been a lecturer since 1966 and Associate Professor since 1975. Salmenhaara was a prolific, versatile writer on music and was a critic for the leading Finnish daily, Helsingin Sanomat, 1963–1973. He was Chairman of the Society of Finnish Composers 1974–1976 and of the Association of Finnish Symphony Orchestras 1974–1978. Salmenhaara died at the age of 61 in Helsinki on Tuesday 19 March, 2002.

Erkki Salmenhaara, always a composer of extremes, for a time the most radical Modernist, then a master of ceremonies at 'nursery concerts', sao too in his new style he went to extremes, progressing beyond free-tonality to a sort of neo-tonality or neo-simplicity that is something quite different from 'traditionalism' or a 'return to the past'. One might call him unique among Finnish composers, a sort of musical dissenter. In his radical early period, Salmenhaara experimented with a variety of composition techniques not yet widely used in Finland, such as aleatorics and playing the piano directly on the strings, as in Suoni successivi (1962) for piano. The Concerto for Two Violins (1963) makes use of electronic amplification, resulting reportedly in "spine-chilling" sounds. Salmenhaara also invented an instrument called the ferrophone, which remained a curiosity.