Naismuusikot rajojen ylittäjinä ja tulevaisuuden rakentajina
Ying-Hsien Chen will defend her doctoral dissertation entitled “Plucking the Forest Sound: the Transculturation of the Finnish Kantele in Japan” in the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, on 28 August 2023 at 12.
The public examination will take place in the festive hall of the Language Centre, Festive Hall, address: Fabianinkatu 26. Check the University of Helsinki’s website for more details and the streaming link for following the examination online.
For the past week, Hiroko Ara has been in our thoughts.
Hiroko Ara was supposed to be in Finland this March for our Women-Music-Futures symposium to share her music (with Haruhiko Saga, as Rauma duo) and her career as a kantele professional in Japan. Last week, we received heartbreaking news from Japan. She passed away on May 5th.
Continue reading “Hiroko Ara in memoriam”
Siboné Oroza will defend her doctoral dissertation entitled “‘When I’m on Stage, I Rule’ – Cholita Futurism in Cochabamba, Bolivia” in the Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, on Friday, 28 April 28th 2023 at 1 p.m. The public examination will take place in the main building of the University of Helsinki, lecture room U3032, address Unioninkatu 34. You can also follow the examination online. Check the University of Helsinki’s website for all details and streaming link.
The documentary film (more info here) based on Siboné Oroza’s fieldwork materials will be screened the day before, Thursday, April 27th at 4 p.m., at the Festive Hall of the University of Helsinki’s Language Centre (Fabianinkatu 26, 3rd floor). The screening is organized by the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology in collaboration with the discipline of Musicology at the University of Helsinki and it is free and open to anyone interested.
The Women–Music–Futures symposium brought together a wide range of presentations based on both artistic and research projects. While the presented projects offered varied insights on women’s musical activities around the world, several common themes emerged. For example, a number of projects emphasized music as a space of comfort, respite, and pleasure for women musicians and their audiences. At the same time music making can provide a sphere where women can build solidarity and networks of mutual support. Sometimes music provides a medium for voicing one’s opinion to the outside world.
– Nina Öhman
It was liberating and empowering to see same issues relating to women musicians repeat in different contexts around the world, and to see that I am not to only one who has paid attention to the minority position of women musicians and wants to change things! Women face similar challenges, although the circumstances may be very different, and it was great to see all the different ways in which people are addressing these issues.
– Jenni Hanikka Continue reading “Thoughts after the symposium”
We are happy to welcome everyone to our symposium with the theme Women – Music – Futures that will take place at the University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland) on March 9th and 10th 2023, with a pre-symposium concert on March 8th, International Women’s Day, at Caisa Cultural Centre.
The Senegalese rap artist Eve Crazy (Awa Sané) and Marjo Smolander have been working on new songs together for the upcoming album of the duo. The duo will present their new music live in Joensuu and Helsinki on the following dates:
Thursday, 1 December. Sointula, Joensuu. At 20.00, tickets 5 € (duo): https://www.facebook.com/events/818379232702531/
Saturday, 10 December. Helsinki, Vuotalo. At 18.00, tickets 10/8 € (together with a band): http://www.vuotalo.fi/fi/tapahtumat/event/555843A0E35FF49D9E5EDCA69E7CDF19/Eve_Crazy___Mar_Yo__levynjulkaisukeikka
Video footage of Eve Crazy & Mar Yo performing live at the opening party of Etnosoi! festival on 4 November 2022 (Tanner, Helsinki). If the video is not working, please accept all the cookies first and try again after that.
We will have an afterparty for the Crossing Borders in Music and Research seminar at Tenho Restobar in Kallio. The concert is open to everyone, even if you are not attending the seminar. There will be several musical performances that all cross borders in one way or another. The musical styles are mostly from Latin America and West Africa. The first band starts at 19.00 and the main act Jaranas del Norte will begin at about 20.30.
Continue reading “Music crossing borders on Fri, 9. Sept 2022”
Musiciana and researcher Siboné Oroza talks about her doctoral research in Bolivia and the documentary film “When I’m on Stage, I Rule” based on the research. The film première was in April in Helsinki.
International symposium at the University of Helsinki
March 9th and 10th 2023
Pre-symposium concert on March 8th, International Women’s Day
In many communities around the world, women are important culture bearers fostering the transmission of local traditions to future generations. However, women also forge new roles in their communities in order to express themselves and to get their voices heard. In these efforts for empowerment, music can serve as a tool for refashioning oneself and one’s place in society, thereby building futures that might not have been possible otherwise. Music also frequently serves as a space for imagination and dreaming, for experimentation with alternative ideas about the past, the present, and the future.
The aim of this symposium is to discuss the agency of women musicians worldwide, and the ways in which they use music to construct imaginary or real futures for themselves. Often working in patriarchal environments and restricted by social norms and expectations of their communities, women demonstrate significant resilience and creativity as they seek to create space for musical activities. In this regard, mutual support and networks between women are important. Sometimes women choose music because it provides a platform for presenting their views and/or influencing their communities in ways that would not be allowed otherwise.
