Riikka Talvitie

What concrete actions have been taken to advance equality in the Finnish music industry? How can diversity be promoted? Researcher Heidi Partti, musician-pedagogue Puro Paju, festival director Linda Suolahti and communications head Sanni Kahilainen talk about programming, the possibilities of pedagogy and questioning the prevailing models.

"I am a composer of contemporary music, but also frequently an ordinary concertgoer – a music listener. My purpose here is to consider an art music concert event from the perspective of an audience member," writes Riikka Talvitie. This column is part of the series where composers and musicians write about their music.

The music of Cecilia Damström stems from expressiveness and the desire to make a difference. In music, the tiniest gestures can come across as political statements. At the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in Tampere in August 2020, Damström’s Requiem for our Earth puts the theme of this year’s event – Music Ecology – up front. “I was able to include an unusually large number of themes important for me in this Requiem,” says the composer.

Collaborative composing is not common among Finnish composers of art music, and the approach raises several critical questions. Is it even possible to share musical creation and innovation with another person? Does group work inevitably lead to bland or incoherent compromises, or can it produce art of a high quality? Is the incentive for engaging in this that it is trendy or that commissioners want it that way, or do composers have other reasons for co-authoring works? Despite the numerous reservations, some composers have found collaboration to be an enriching aspect of writing music.

Viitasaari, in central Finland 350 km north of Helsinki, is the home of the Time of Music festival. Founded in 1982, it is Finland’s oldest annual festival of contemporary music. But that is not all: it is also a continuing education event with a legendary reputation. Today, the courses given at the festival attract more top-notch foreign participants than the town can accommodate. Is this Finland’s Darmstadt – or something even better than that?

Composer, oboist and educator Riikka Talvitie shares her thoughts on the profession and training of composers now and in the future.

The Tampere Biennale once again showcased a broad spectrum of new music from home and abroad. Instead of the mainstream, the festival focused on the margins of creative musical art and explored interfaces between branches of the arts.

The drama emerges from the everyday conversations of the Judge’s family but expands in the viewer’s mind – thanks in no small part to Talvitie’s powerful music, reflecting horrors in its shrieking noises, dissonances and nightmarish repetitions.

In 2016 women are still under-represented in classical concert repertoire, never mind the canon. At contemporary music concerts, however, women appear as composers with increasing frequency. How should we address the issue of a composer’s (female) gender in this day and age? Are we really still talking about this, in Finland?

Guitarists are unusually keen to commission new compositions. The guitarist, composer and audience all benefit, because the guitar, being a popular instrument, lowers the threshold to listening to new music. Finnish guitarists Petri Kumela, Otto Tolonen and Patrik Kleemola rank among the most active champions of new guitar repertoire.