Pekka Jalkanen

Kantele player Eija Kankaanranta constantly challenges herself as a musician and embraces the new dimensions she discovers in her instrument.

The first Moomin book Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood) was published 75 years ago. To mark the anniversary, FMQ gives an overview of music that has been composed over the years based on and inspired by Moomin stories.

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

Historical research very often starts with the researcher consulting archives. Finland has a wide variety of libraries and archives with material on a wide range of subjects, including Sibelius, church music from the Middle Ages, folk music and popular music.

Children’s music underwent a huge transition in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. Composer Pekka Jalkanen witnessed and contributed to this development. In this article from 2011 he discusses the history of Finnish children's music.

“Nowadays, a great variety of music is played on the kantele. Its repertoire includes neoclassical, minimalist, and modern music. The kantele is also a more international instrument than ever before”, writes Pekka Jalkanen in his article about contemporary music for kantele (FMQ 3/2008).

The most prolific and most popular opera librettist in Finland today is a writer, poet and musician from Peru: Maritza Núñez. The opera Frida y Diego by Kalevi Aho, commissioned by the Sibelius Academy, is to be premiered at the Helsinki Musiikkitalo in October 2014.