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.
Women – Music – Futures
International symposium at the University of Helsinki
March 9th and 10th 2023
Pre-symposium concert on March 8th, International Women’s Day
Call for Proposals
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.
Crossing Borders in Music and Research
Helsinki, Friday, September 9th 2022
Tieteiden talo (House of Sciences and Letters), Kirkkokatu 6, room 504
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
This seminar aims to bring together researchers and musicians whose work involves crossing national, cultural, social and/or musical borders. Musicians cross borders in artistic encounters, but also researchers in the field of ethnomusicology commonly participate in the musical practices of their research collaborators. The World Wide Women project team has noticed that border-crossing raises similar questions for musicians and researchers, especially as they seek to enter respectful research and work relationships with their collaborators. We have found that ethically and politically accountable research and/or artistic practices involve thinking hard about the various ways in which global and local power structures such as racism, gender ideologies, cultural appropriation, and access to resources affect one’s work. However, rather than focusing on problems caused by structural inequalities, our desire is to learn from the insights that the participants have gained during their research and/or artistic projects.
“When I’m on Stage, I Rule” documentary film
Welcome to see the the documentary film “When I’m on Stage, I Rule” to Cultural Centre Caisa’s auditorium on Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 at 18 in Cultural Centre Caisa‘s auritorium!
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All Female Orchestra (Mali)
The subproject All Female Orchestra – Cross-Cultural Collaboration in Mali will not start until later this year, but on this video Marjo Smolander and Jenni Hanikka tell about the plans and about their earlier experiences of collaborating with Malian musicians.
Transculturation of the kantele in Japan
Doctoral candidate Ying-Hsien Chen tells about her project “Longing for the sound of forest” that deals with the adoption and adaptation of the Finnish kantele in Japan.
Project Introduction Video
Project leader, ethnomusicologist Elina Seye talks about the background and themes of the World Wide Women project.
Presenting the project at the ”Women, Music and the World” seminar
Written by Nina Öhman
The World Wide Women team presented the project publicly for the first time on November 13th 2021 in the Etnosoi! seminar ”Women, Music and the World.” At the seminar, the team members talked about their own projects and showed related video clips or played music. The presentations centered on female musicians and the crossing of different kinds of boundaries. The seminar gathered about 30 listeners into the Maijansali hall of the Central Library Oodi; their participation demonstrated the interest of the audience towards research on women’s musical life.
As a whole, the team’s presentations emphasized music’s great importance as a means of self-expression for women around the world. For many female musicians and their audiences, music is not just a “decoration” of everyday life, not just entertainment (although it can also be that), but musical activities give them a possibility for expressing a social stance, for encaging in activism and for creating visions of a better future.
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Etnosoi! Seminar: Women, Music and the World
The Etnosoi! seminar at Oodi Library focuses on female musicians, transcultural cooperation and crossing borders. The seminar consists of two segments with a break in between. Between spoken presentations, both live and recorded music will be heard.
The first segment of the seminar focuses on our project World Wide Women – Female Musicians Crossing Borders and Building the Future, which will be presented for the first time by its working group. Presenting the p
roject at the seminar will be postdoctoral researcher Elina Seye, musicology doctoral researcher Ying-Hsien Chen, flutist and singer Jenni Hanikka, kantele player and singer-songwriter Marjo Smolander, researcher and musician Siboné Oroza, artist Antti Nordin and researcher Nina Öhman.
Female musicians in Senegal are coming together
Elina Seye and Marjo Smolander from the WWW team were working on their own projects in Dakar, Senegal in the spring of 2021 as they went to meet representatives of local organizations for female musicians.
It is not until recently that female musicians in Senegal have started networking to support each other and strengthen their professional skills in the male-dominated music industry. Most female musicians in Senegal work as backup singers – many do dream of a solo career, but it is hard to find musicians, a producer and other professionals that they would need to promote their solo career.
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