Blood, porn and propaganda, OH GOD!
Folk music, feminism and troubling topics
Folk music through a feminist perspective has been a thing in Sweden for several years, but Finland’s first series of feminist folk music concerts is only now taking place. Singer and journalist Amanda Kauranne and her team explore difficult topics and taboos of womanhood in four concerts.
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Special Feature 3/2018:
Music, community and identity
In the Special Feature 3/2018, FMQ takes a look at the fascinating network of relationships between music, community and identity. We discuss the role of music in building communities on the one hand and specialised, music-based communities on the other.
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Jukka Iisakkila
The baton, the guitar and magic
Folk musician, conductor, composer, guitar hero. Jukka Iisakkila has tried all of that – with flying colours. A new feather in his cap is the recent collaboration with guitarist Steve Vai.
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Western musical diplomacy in Finland during the Cold War, Part 2:
The complexities of cultural diplomacy
The cultural cold war between the superpowers that began after the Second World War played a major role in shaping the international arts and culture scene as we know it today. This series of articles discusses the impacts of cultural diplomacy, particularly that of the USA, on Finnish music from the days of the Cold War to the present. The second part focuses on the complex and diverse network of cultural diplomacy efforts aimed at Finland by the USA in the 1950s.
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Salonen, Lindberg and Hämeenniemi:
The Great Finnish Music Swindle
In summer 1979, a number of Finnish composers and musicians attended a summer course in Siena, Italy. Three of them hit on an idea for a practical joke, and this led to a grand swindle that prompted hilarity on the music scene and had many authoritative figures ending up with egg on their face. The hoax was masterminded by three composers: Eero Hämeenniemi, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Magnus Lindberg. Both of the latter turned 60 in June 2018.
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Jazz bass player Kaisa Mäensivu:
Band leader and sidewoman
Kaisa Mäensivu studied double bass at the Sibelius Academy and continued her jazz studies at the Manhattan School of Music. She is now creating a career in various ensembles in the USA and Finland. How did she end up becoming a jazz professional? And how would she compare her experiences of the jazz scene in Helsinki and New York?
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From the Archives (1985–2005)
FMQ began life as a printed magazine – the Finnish Music Quarterly – in 1985. Until 2005, its articles were only available in hard copy.
Selected articles from our back catalogue have been posted online, and the selection is continuously being added to.
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