Pull or push? Diatonal or microtonal? Traditional bear hunting celebration or reflections of the cosmos? Antti Paalanen and Veli Kujala prove that the accordion can do...

Many of today’s Finnish professional musicians attended the Sibelius Upper Secondary School in Helsinki. In addition to general education and musical & dance tuition, the school...

Composer Ville Raasakka creates hyper-realistic music using sources ranging from individual sounds collected in everyday life to entire concerts. His work Hypermarket and hypercommodity for shopping...

Today, the kantele inspires composers and performers across genre boundaries. Musician Maija Kauhanen and composer Adina Dumitrescu discuss the instrument from their respective perspectives.

Finns never fail to point out that the kantele is Finland’s national instrument. In our national epic, the Kalevala, Väinämöinen the wizard builds the first kantele...

How does one organise arts education in a multi-ethnic society? Whose culture should be taught? What should be considered in drawing up a national curriculum for...

Two jazz professionals, journalist Andreas Müller and label manager Dave Stapleton, had a brief chat about Finnish jazz prior to Jazzahead! 2017, the international jazz expo...

During her long and winding career, Iro Haarla has reinvented herself many times over. She has rolled with the punches and beat all odds to become...

Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble fuses West African rhythms to an array of jazz, funk and rock for a high-energy sound that appeals to heart, head and feet. Born...