Time of Music festival
From Finnish composers’ pilgrimage to international training ground
Viitasaari, in central Finland 350 km north of Helsinki, is the home of the Time of Music festival. Founded in 1982, it is Finland’s oldest annual festival of contemporary music. But that is not all: it is also a continuing education event with a legendary reputation. Today, the courses given at the festival attract more top-notch foreign participants than the town can accommodate. Is this Finland’s Darmstadt – or something even better than that?
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A celebration of historical Finnish women who wrote music, Part 3:
Laura Netzel
Composer Laura Netzel (1839–1927) was celebrated in her lifetime as a notable musician and philanthropist. Born in Savo in eastern Finland, she spent her life in Stockholm, where she came to be known as a prolific composer and an active member of various charities.
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Jazz on the Beach in Raahe
Cool music from a hot town
In a sun-drenched town only 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, jazz connoisseurs mixed with locals to enjoy their 31st festival of music, at the Jazz on the Beach in Raahe, Finland.
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FMQ Special Feature 2/2019
Musicians coping with a changing world
FMQ Special Feature 2/2019 focuses on major changes emblematic of our times: in the climate, in our operating environments, in global politics and in individual attitudes. How are these changes reflected in the work of musicians? What do musicians themselves expect of the future? And how do musicians and music authors respond in the content of their work to the challenges created by change?
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La Chambre aux échos brings Saariaho’s early work to Viitasaari
Creativity in dialogue
One of the international guests at this year’s Time of Music festival in Viitasaari is the music theatre company La Chamber aux échos. Its mission is to explore subtle connections between the various branches of the arts. Co-founder, director-dramaturge Aleksi Barrière considers collaboration with contemporary composers to be a key element in his work. Recently, one of his principal artistic partners has been his mother, composer Kaija Saariaho.
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A composer thoroughly familiar with the choir
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
His music is constantly being performed abroad. In Finland, he is known as a composer of choral music and an active singer. Regular readers of FMQ will recognise him as one of our house translators. Jaakko Mäntyjärvi is something of a musical outlier.
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Singing for a changed world
As the Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki names its winners, what awaits the next generation of singers who are hoping to repeat the success of their forbears – or simply earn a living? We assess their options and opportunities with the help of two established professionals.
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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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