Kimmo Hakola

Composer Kimmo Hakola has been an expert consultant in cultural administration at home and abroad for the past 20 years. In this column, he discusses aspects of the Finnish grants system and the cumulative financial impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the music scene.

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?

"The first dramatic moment in listening in the mind is when that internal sound latches on to something tangible and becomes performable music." This column is part of the series "On my music and beyond", where composers and other music makers write about their music.

"The Kalevala myth was a genuine source of inspiration for the fledgling Finnish nation in search of an identity. But has it been such a thing any more, really, since the Second World War?," asks Kimmo Hakola in his Kalevala day column.

Whenever a new guitar work draws its inspiration from Spain, I become circumspect: not again. Hakola manages to surprise positively, though. Apparently, he has identified in medieval Spain something akin to his well-known all- inclusive musical language: a harmonious co- existence of views, beliefs and traditions.