concert venues

"The resilience of our industry has been weighed in the balance and found to be sound. We will pull through this, but it will require us to accept that the change is permanent and to respond to that change," writes Annamaija Saarela in her FMQ column.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused an abrupt and total dissolution of the work opportunities and income of music professionals. Freelance musicians, concert venues and festivals have been the hardest hit, but the long-term impacts of the crisis will reverberate throughout the sector. FMQ talked to representatives of organisations in the field of music in Finland to gauge how they feel about the current situation and outlook. What have we learned about the music sector in the light of the crisis so far? Are there any potential positive outcomes?

Innumerable concerts, wonderful halls and talented musicians: the popular image of the status of Western art music in Japan has undergone a sea-change in the past few decades. The country has a rich musical culture that today is closely aligned with the West yet continues to explore its own unique pathways. Lasse Lehtonen, Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo, discusses the musical culture of Japan in his column, which was written before the COVID-19 outbreak morphed into a pandemic.

​The coronavirus pandemic is affecting the lives of people all around the world, and the music sector is not immune to its impact. In Finland, for instance, the Government has decided to ban all public events with more than 500 attendees until further notice. But this cannot stop the music: times of crisis such as this heighten the importance of music in bringing people together and providing encouragement and comfort. FMQ compiles information on available live streaming and explains how Finnish music is responding to the challenges of the pandemic. This article will be updated on a weekly basis, so watch this space!

In recent years, concert hall research has been raised to a new level with a method developed at Aalto University in Finland. This enables the authentic auditing of concert hall acoustics in a laboratory.

"Studying the acoustic responses measured has also allowed conclusions to be made about what kind of sound field leads to a specific kind of observation by listeners. This translates into a better understanding of what kind of architecture supports music best and, above all, conveys the orchestra’s performance of the music to the audience in the best possible way."

In Finland, dozens of music events with strong connections to nature are organised each summer. Nature itself seems to form an integral part of a successful festival experience at these events. We discussed with music researchers Merja Hottinen and Juha Torvinen the relationships between nature, the environment, music and listening experiences.

Despite repeated and persistent efforts spanning a century, Helsinki has never had a true orchestral concert hall until this year. The new Music Centre, opening in August 2011, is the first ever venue in Finland's capital city specifically designed and intended for the performing of symphonic music.