7th Folk Music Researchers’ Symposium: Abstracts 27 February 2026

Published 20.1.2026 | Updated 27.1.2026

Annukka Hirvasvuopio

Bringing Back the Voices of Our Ancestors: Developing and Indigenizing Sámi Music Education

The Sámi are an Indigenous people living in Sápmi, an area predating the modern borders of northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Sámis in some parts of Sápmi share the same language dialect as well as the traditional livelihood of reindeer herding and an ancient musical tradition known as yoiking (juoigan). In an effort to assimilate the Sámi, yoiking has not been taught in schools and has been strictly forbidden at various points by the majority cultures in which the Sámi live. This keynote  describes efforts by the Sámi to revitalize yoiking in the Sámi allaskuvla of Guovdageaidnu, Norway, and the Sámi Music Academy in Ohcejohka, Finland. In both programs, students were encouraged to study the yoiks of their own families and ancestors to strengthen their Sámi identity and reclaim an ancient tradition central to their culture.

Neea Lamminmäki

Rethinking music school education through Näppäri: Intergenerational meaning-making towards socio-cultural sustainability

This presentation discusses the potential of folk music pedagogy to promote socio-cultural sustainability in and through music schools by introducing a case study of Finnish Näppäri music education. Näppäri is an inclusive intergenerational practice rooted in folk music, operating within institutionalised music education. Näppäri highlights the need for a transition of professional mental models in music education towards 1) widening accessibility to culture-making, 2) intergenerational social inclusion, and 3) musical pluriversality through translating heritage in contemporary society. These three interconnected dimensions can be seen to pave the way to the transformational politics of sustainability in Finnish society. Focusing on an upcoming article, the presentation shares preliminary findings of intergenerational participant experiences that further shape ecological understandings of Näppäri in relation to sustainability in and through music school education.

Pankaj Rawat

Feminist Ethnomusicologies of Emotion and Ecology: Women’s Agency, Performance, and Cultural Sustainability in the Folk Songs of the Uttarakhand Himalayas Performance

Women’s songs in Uttarakhand Himalayas encapsulate socio-cultural identities, ecological wisdom, and emotional resilience, offering vital insights into the intertwined relationship between humans, nature, and tradition. The present study explores the intersections of gender, ecology, and emotion through the lens of feminist ethnomusicology in the folk songs of the Uttarakhand Himalayas. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork with 390 women across diverse mountain communities, the research employs theoretical, linguistic, and digital methodologies—including Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based sentiment and emotion analysis—to examine how women’s musical performances reflect gendered agency, environmental consciousness, and collective memory. The findings reveal that Uttarakhand’s folk songs are dynamic archives of cultural sustainability, encoding motifs of seasonal change, biodiversity, livelihood, familial bonds, and resistance to social hierarchies. They map “emotional ecologies” where women’s affective expressions merge with ecological awareness, situating music as both a medium of embodied performance and environmental narration. Integrating feminist geography, environmental ethnomusicology, and affect theory, the study demonstrates that these oral traditions create gendered sonic spaces that sustain identities, document lived experiences, and preserve indigenous ecological knowledge. 

By linking gendered soundscapes to broader discussions of sustainability and cultural resilience, this research positions women’s folk songs as critical vehicles for understanding rural mountain societies amid ecological and social transformation. It argues for recognizing women’s voices not merely as cultural artifacts but as active agents of ecological ethics and feminist epistemologies. The study contributes an ethical and reflexive model for integrating local musical knowledge into contemporary discourses on climate change, cultural continuity, and sustainable futures in ethnomusicology and feminist geography. 

Keywords: Feminist Ethnomusicology, Gender Roles, Emotion, Ecology, Cultural Sustainability, Folk Songs, Uttarakhand Himalayas

Pauliina Syrjälä

Starting the Day with Open Senses: The Pedagogical Possibilities of Everyday Improvisation Practice

I engage in artistic research practice that includes regular improvisation sessions on my instrument every morning. I prepare for improvisation by going for a walk, during which I open my senses and observe my surroundings, consciously trying to make a deliberate effort to let go of goal-driven thoughts. During my walk, I often decide which kantele to play, as well as the tuning and playing technique. I record my improvisations and write a working diary about them. This practice was originally developed for the purposes of artistic research, but because of my long career as a teacher, I recognise that it is also interesting from the perspective of folk music (instrumental) teaching.

Improvisation is actively practised in folk music, and it is also an important element in folk music pedagogy, in which improvisation is seen as a multifaceted phenomenon, ranging from melodic variation and improvisation based on traditional melodies to free improvisation and movement expression. In this study, I approach improvisation as a musical phenomenon, as playing “from one’s own head”, which arises in the moment as a result of one’s present state of mind and physical circumstance. With my instrument, improvisation is strongly linked to the older tradition of kantele music, which is repetitive, long-lasting, and often has a narrow range.

Musicians of the past conducted their improvisations in a world that was presumably less performance-oriented and comparative than today. In examining the pedagogical possibilities of improvisation, I focus particularly on working with professional students of folk music. Currently, students face many challenges, one of which is the constant evaluation and comparison of their own artistic work with that of others. This can become performance-oriented, making it challenging to relax and enjoy music.

Based on my own artistic and pedagogical experience, I propose that various non evaluative practices that develop conscious presence are particularly important at this time. In my presentation, I will illustrate one working method and approach that teachers and students can use together to examine and find ways for each musician to discover a non-judgmental (artistic) space. I believe that this kind of work strengthens the creativity and artistic voice of folk music students. Long-term practice also makes it possible to find the tools needed to calm the mind and allow space for the slow process of development: growing as an artist.

Marie Fielding

Innovative practice, utilising self-assessment

What is innovation? Is there such a thing as a mistake or is it an opportunity to make change? Our traditional music, over many years, has evolved with the seasons and world around us, oDering endless unpredictability, with a thirst to be nurtured. Do we need qualifications to make change or does taking risk move us to the next part of our journey, if we embrace the unknown along the way? Productivity requires energy to persevere on the task, so we should take time to embrace nature, recharging our batteries, enabling us to identify our needs, uniqueness, self-assess, question questions, respond or not. Do we always need to wait on feedback from others, before being more in the moment and active, as practitioners, building resilience, sharing outcomes, documentation, and theories?

As an educator for over 40 years including early years education, musician, fiddler, composer, innovator and mentor, I have developed a process of self-assessment, motivation which encourages my students to go beyond their self-imposed limitations and feel empowered. I hold myself accountable for the direction I move in and why. As a neurodiverse learner and self-taught musician, with no degree or similar, I often find myself stuck but never bored. I am known for asking questions, reflecting, doubting yet, pushing boundaries. I follow instinct, rather than follow rules. Who do I rely on? Myself and my feedback, self-assesing myself, as a starting point. This happens in many formats: Getting outdoors for walks, graphs, shapes, words, reading, drawings, painting, collaborating with myself and others, improvising, composing. By pushing myself to keep up with our everchanging world, I feel part of the legacy being nourished, for future generations.

Emmi Kuittinen

The artistic practice and ethical issues of a folk singer in the context of folk traditions expressing grief

My presentation is linked to my artistic doctoral research, where I study different ways of expressing grief in folk music in the past, present, and future. I also examine how these different ways could be named and conceptualized in a culturally sustainable way and how to work as an artist in an ethical and sustainable manner.

I am a folk singer specializing in the Karelian and Ingrian traditions, and in my previous artistic work I have focused on lamenting. In my artistic doctoral research, I take a new perspective on sung grief by focusing my research material on Finnish, Karelian, and Ingrian worry songs (huolilaulu in Finnish) which I will compare to Karelian and Ingrian laments. Worry songs are folk songs in runosong meter, and they are used to relieve sorrow. Laments, on the other hand, are traditionally ritual mourning and communication with the unseen otherworld. 

In recent years, laments have been under discussion, with young Karelian activists accusing e. g. folk musicians of cultural appropriation. I am very familiar with these discussions, as I was involved from 2021 to 2023 in the Kyynelkanavat project, which combined research and art to study laments in contemporary Finland. Our project also received criticism from the activists. The criticism was partly due to ignorance about our project and its background, but it made me realize the importance of openness in research and art, as well as the importance of fact-based and accurate language use, and made me think about what I could do differently as an artist.

As Soini & Birkeland note, cultural sustainability is “heritage, vitality, economic viability, diversity, locality, eco-cultural resilience, and eco-cultural civilization” (Soini & Birkeland 2014, 1). In my experience, the cultural and ethical sustainability are essential aspects for a folk musician to get tools for the art making, to get the respect of different communities and to be able to work for the living, sustainable future as well.

My presentation reflects my artistic practice, which has been influenced by the above-mentioned discussions. I will use examples to illustrate how I am currently working on the artistic part of my doctoral studies and how I am considering the ethical issues that have arisen. My presentation will also include musical examples, meaning that in addition to speaking, I will also sing.

Artturi Vuorinen

Soittajalähtöinen soitinkehitys: yksirivisen haitarin prototyypin rakentaminen

Kansansoittajat usein rakensivat omat soittimensa, ja täten soitin sopii omaan käteen omien preferenssien ja toiveiden mukaisesti. Nykyään jotkut soitinrakentajat tekevät tällaista räätälöintiä, mutta usein villeimmät ideat jätetään välistä. Miten soittimia voisi kehittää soittajalähtöisesti? Maisteriopintojeni ja pro gradu -työni tutkimuskohteena on kehittämäni prototyyppi yksirivisestä haitarista, jossa soittaja voi helposti muuttaa asteikon säveliä samaan tapaan kuin esimerkiksi kanteleissa puolisävelaskelvaihtajilla. Tarkoituksenani on tutkia tämän uudenlaisen yksirivisen haitarin käyttöä sekä myös rakentamisprosessia soittajan näkökulmasta. Olen tehnyt prototyypin rakentamista Aalto-yliopiston Fablabissa ja käyttänyt digital fabrication -menetelmiä. Lisäksi tutkimuksessani on autoetnografinen painotus, sillä toimin projektissa sekä soittajana, soitinrakentajana että tutkijana.

Juhana Nyrhinen

Workshop: Rapapalli – Uulu’s Sustainable Instrument Making

Join us for a hands-on workshop where tradition meets creativity! Rapapalli is a traditional instrument woven from birch bark, and in this session, we’ll craft its playful cardboard version: Rapapalli vol. 2.

Participants will: 

• Explore creative reuse by building instruments from recycled materials. 
• Develop fine motor skills through cutting, folding, and assembling. 
• Decorate and personalize their creations for collaborative music-making. 

This workshop encourages imagination and sparks ideas for sustainable practices. By making the instrument yourself, you create a personal connection to music and craft—while having fun! 

Languages: English and/or Finnish

Marjo Smolander

Workshop: A participatory Kantele concert

A participatory Kantele concert is a musical experience in which the participants (audience) and the instructor-musician (performer) create a concert-like moment together. The aim is to break down the traditional barrier between performer and audience and offer an experience of playing together without any skill requirements for people from different backgrounds. The concept is based on 5-string kanteles and improvisation played by the instructor-musician on a 15-string kantele. Playing together is a shared exploration of the moods created by sounds and melodies, as well as an experience of doing something together. With this concept, small kanteles have reached different target groups, and five-string kanteles have served as builders of interaction. Five-string kanteles are played during the performance.

Languages: English and/or Finnish

Susanne Rosenberg

Giving space, giving time, giving flow – Shadow singing as a method for attention in Folk Song Lab

In our time, attention is our most valuable currency (Nørretranders, 1997), and it is a challenge to find a longer timespan for concentrated musicmaking that oFers both creativity and flow. To address this, a platform called Folk Song Lab was created, oFering a longer, more coherent time for collective improvisation. The platform is based on the concept of the folk song as a cognitive frame (Rosenberg, 2021), meaning that there is no original, only variants. Artistic methods have been developed to promote collective improvisation through mimicry, play, risk, reorientation, feedback and learning, always starting the session with a method called Shadow singing. Reflections from participants in this collective and collaborative project suggest that the meaningfulness of a longer time span is crucial for fostering creativity and flow, and that the method of shadow singing plays a

significant role in this process. This presentation will discuss some of the findings that have implications for both our attention span and sustainability in today’s society, as well as the connection between neurological findings, music & health in general in today’s complex world.

David Johnson

Sustaining Nordic singing traditions through online networks

Despite decades of advocacy in the Nordic region, indigenous and other traditional vocal musics remain almost entirely absent from compulsory music education and teacher training in countries such as Sweden and Norway (Hirvasvuopio, 2024; Johnson, 2021). Many of these traditions are endangered. The aim of the Singing Maps Nordic Research Hub (SMNR-Hub) is to support Nordic inter-institutional collaboration on research, innovation and teacher education to sustain and promote indigenous and traditional Nordic singing practices through music education. The SMNR-Hub builds on the established trans-Nordic Singing Maps research network which was developed through the NORDFORSK Exploratory Workshops program (2023–2024) to include researchers, tradition bearers and music educators from across the Nordic region. The research and development work performed by the SMNR- Hub aims to establish a sustainable framework for the continued development, curation and maintenance of the Singing Maps Open Online Learning Community (OOC) website for learning traditional and indigenous singing. This first-of-its-kind learning resource was developed by the Singing Maps Exploratory Workshop partners to serve as a shared digital platform for inter-institutional collaboration and harmonization of teacher education in traditional musics as a basis for long-term strategic alliances between Higher Education institutions across the North. In this presentation, the Singing Map digital community platform will be presented and discussed. The question of how music education can sustain traditional musics will be considered in light of recent international initiatives and current research projects within the Singing Map network. Aims and methods from the ongoing Research Council of Norway-financed Sápmi Singing Maps research initiative (2025–2029) will be outlined.

Gertrud Maria Huber

Alpine Yodeling: Raising awareness and building sustainable futures with a local musical tradition

This paper addresses a topic that concerns sensitivity and awareness of sustainability knowledge and challenges that are also encoded and anchored in cultural values and musical practices, specifically in the yodeling tradition of Alpine soundscapes. Although environmental activism draws public attention to the drama of important issues such as the extinction of whales and the threatened habitats of indigenous communities, society often lacks the direct concern and the substantive and geographical proximity to ecological and social problems to respond with sustainable action.

The Canadian composer and acoustic ecologist Raymond Murray Schafer advocated as early as 1967 that in art we should try to get people to use their senses, listen carefully and look at things closely. I also argue that a sensitivity and understanding of the need for sustainability must first be felt and made conscious in one’s own cultural work and daily life before solutions to major problems can be understood, developed, and accepted. Folk music is a culture that has evolved within socio-cultural contexts with functional connections, yet it is often dismissed as supposedly „small“. Culturally sustainable folk music education can help and support to recognize and sharpen this awareness of the small and in the small (here in the yodeling tradition) for the big (a holistic view of sustainability).

To illustrate the small-scale awareness, I will highlight keywords in relation to yodeling practice: Listening behavior in and to yodeling, memories, encoded knowledge and identity formation, and societal challenges like inequality and dualism.

I address and discuss this approach in the yodeling class at the mdw Vienna. The course is taken by music students from various disciplines as a compulsory, elective, or optional subject in artistic, pedagogical, theoretical and scientific music studies.

Maija Karhinen-Ilo

Workshop: Participatory Song and Dance

This workshop introduces participatory European song dance traditions such as runo song dance, ballad dance, kvaddans, and danse bretonne. Rooted in medieval chain dance practices, these forms combine unaccompanied communal singing with simple chain or circle dances led by a song leader. Through shared singing and synchronised movement, participants attune to one another musically and socially, fostering connection, empathy, and inclusion.

The workshop offers hands-on experience alongside contextual insights into the tradition and the presenter’s pedagogical approach. Emphasis is placed on embodied learning, vocal freedom, and collective music-making. The session explores song dance as an accessible, empowering practice and as a meaningful tool within folk music education and inclusive social contexts.

Pilvi Järvelä

Integrating Folk Music Aesthetics into Piano Pedagogy: Developing An Online Learning Resource

In Finland, the piano has not traditionally been considered a folk instrument. My doctoral project focuses on the affordances of the piano in folk music, with particular emphasis on its pedagogical applications and potential. In my artistic components I have been diving in to the working methods of a folk music pianist, where stylistic and aesthetic features of other instruments are adapted to the piano. My aim has been to identify and adapt playing techniques and practices widely used in Finnish folk music to the piano, thereby expanding pianistic expression with folk music aesthetics. The study employs a practice-based artistic research approach.

I believe that engaging with folk music offers more than musical content— it can also deepen awareness of one’s cultural heritage and provide opportunities to participate in it through personal practice. By playing folk music while considering its historical contexts, customs, and environments, musicians can deepen their understanding of heritage beyond the musical domain. In this sense, music may be seen as an archive through which practitioners engage with historical culture as part of their own artistic experience. Recognizing this musical and historical continuum enhances the practitioners’s creative practice.

This presentation introduces an online piano pedagogy resource currently under development, grounded in folk music principles. I will demonstrate its current stage through practical examples and discuss how artistic work has shaped its design and content. Furthermore, I will reflect on how such material could support pianists in joining the folk music community and strengthen their experience of music-making as a link in the historical continuum within the living tradition of folk music