FMQ 4/2010

Kjell Westö is an award-winning author whose books have been translated into several languages. But really he would like to be a musician. His historical novels are brimming with music, describing the arrival of jazz and rock in Finland.

Conductor Susanna Mälkki is becoming bigger and bigger in Paris. And she is still only 41-years of age. Barely a grown-up in the masculine and patriarchic world of conducting.

Them Bird Things are a Finnish band who perform American songs. Everything started when producer Will Shade introduced his wife-to-be Salla Day to the songs of Steve Blodgett and Mike Brassard. The band's story is one that praises the art of song and combines European strengths with American ones.