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"​Vildá is a very refreshing addition to the Finnish world music scene, a combination of top-notch accordion playing by Viivi Maria Saarenkylä and the truly unique sounds that Hildá Länsman produces with her voice, both without words and in her native language, Northern Sámi."

"With my teaching this summer, I have found a new and hopeful vista opening before me," writes Kaija Saariaho. This column is part of the series On my music and beyond, where composers and other music makers write about their music.

"The world is a mosaic of beliefs, of languages, of varied communities, and the question is not whether it is possible for them to coexist but how their coexistence could be facilitated, because we have no choice”, writes Kaija Saariaho in her column, originally published in FMQ in 2019.

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?

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.

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.

"Throughout history, periods of uncertainty have prompted people to resort to art and spirituality to search for answers. Amidst the upheavals of our time, art is excellently placed to once again both reflect the world and to change it."

Antye Greie-Ripatti, an artist whose work spans many genres and continents, hosts a sonic experimentation workshop for children in Helsinki in late June. “Listening and sound should be taught at an early age, as well as the creative use of technology – and critical, resistant thinking about it,” she says.

How do musicians and other music professionals in Finland view the future? The outlook for the music industry is sunny but not entirely without clouds, according to the recently conducted Music Industry Barometer study. Although professionals believe firmly in further growth, many are concerned about how current developments will affect their livelihood, particularly the digitisation of recording distribution and the tightening competition.