SibA Research Days 2026: Change and the Arts
SRD 2026 explores the changing relationships between music and arts research, artistic practice, communities, and society.
The event carries on the discussions of the preceding research days with their main themes of “Society and research in dialogue” (2024), and “Ethics and research in artistic practice” (2025).
We live in a time of profound environmental, societal, political, and technological turmoil, marked by large-scale developments that are reshaping our societies and cultures, and the arts. These transformations create a growing need to understand, adapt to and, perhaps most importantly, actively make change. How can music, the arts and research contribute to this process? What can we do as individual researchers and practitioners? How can we strengthen our voices as a creative community? What kind of meaning-making processes can arts contribute to?
SRD 2026 explores the changing relationships between music and arts research, artistic practice, communities, and society. It asks how research can deepen our understanding of the arts and support meaningful transformation, while considering the roles of communality and communities in shaping cultural meaning-making and artistic experiences. Furthermore, we may reflect on musicians and artistic work, art audiences, authenticity, musical value, and artistic value, examining how these concepts evolve in changing cultural contexts. The seminar brings together perspectives on adapting to change and actively making change—through arts, research, and the communities that connect them. At its core, Change and the Arts hopefully ignites us to explore how artistic and research practices can help us understand the forces shaping our world, navigate uncertainty, and imagine — and enact — new possibilities.
Change and the Arts as a meta-theme also refers to the reform of Uniarts and Sibelius Academy doctoral education and research, concerning structures, practices, curricula, and many other aspects. SRD 2026 is the first one as a joint Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre, serving as a forum where we can explore, discuss and celebrate our multifaceted creative research community – perhaps coming up with new ideas for strengthening our community among the changes.
Programme
Thursday 5 November
08:30 Coffee & registration
09:00 Words of Welcome (Black Box)
- Welcome by Tuuli Talvitie (Vice Dean of research, Sibelius Academy)
- Opening notes by Toni-Matti Karjalainen (Professor, Head of Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre)
09:30 Research Panel Discussion: “Change and the Arts” (Black Box)
- Maarit Kinnunen (Visiting Researcher in University of Lapland, LiveFIN, Suomen Jazzliitto)
- Kai Tuuri (University Researcher, Docent, University of Jyväskylä)
- Meri Kytö (University Lecturer, Docent, University of Turku)
- Kimi Kärki (University Lecturer, Uniarts, Docent, recording and touring artist)
- Moderated by Toni-Matti Karjalainen
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Presentation sessions 1 (Black Box) & 2 (S3101)
Black Box
- 11:00 Gonçalo Cruz: Forgotten bagpipes of the Baltic Sea: The redesign of the säkkipilli in Finland
- 11:30 Livia Schweizer: A score as a tool to observe and explore interdependency
- 11:50 Kumi Shimozaki: When the keyboard size changes: Embodiment and adaptation in piano playing
- 12:10 Emmi Kuittinen: The change of the folk musician’s gaze
S3101 (Finnish session)
- 11:00 Marja Saarela: Harmoninen liike ja emotionaalinen nostatus Cavallin resitatiiveissa
- 11:20 Jenni Lappalainen: Arkistoista esityksiksi ja editioiksi: Ilmari Hannikaisen julkaisemattomat yksinlaulut
- 11:40 Hannu Tolvanen: Iskelmä – mitä se on?
- 12:00 Janne Kivistö: Käsitykset teleologisuudesta Jean Sibeliuksen toisen sinfonian aikalaisvastaanotossa
12:30 Lunch (self-financed)
13:30 Presentation sessions 3 (Black Box) & 4 (S3101)
Black Box
- 13:30 Mercedes Krapovickas: From control to co-agency with the augmented bandoneon
- 14:00 Hanne Närhinsalo: Rethinking musicianship skills: Towards a more holistic pedagogy
- 14:20 Kevin Skelton: A problem with discipline in performing arts higher education
S3101
- 13:30 Uğur Aslan: Atmospheric acoustic palimpsests: Sonic memory and the afterlives of Albania’s bunkers
- 13:50 Mathias Bank: Tower of Almas
- 14:00 Merja “Merzi” Rajala & Katja Thomson: Choirs for ecocide law: Choral activism as public pedagogy
- 14:20 Violeta Simjanovska: Small live music venues and labour infrastructures: Insights from Helsinki
14:40 Coffee break
15:00 Master students’ forum* (Black Box, English/Finnish session), moderator: Toni-Matti Karjalainen
15:00 Opening words
- Samu Pihlajamaa: Musiikinopettajien kokemuksia oppilaan uskonnollisen vakaumuksen vaikutuksesta musiikinopetukseen osallistumiseen
- Veera Hänninen: Yläkoulun musiikinopettajien kokemuksia ryhmänhallinnasta
- Lisa Kalkowski: Norm-critical feminist leadership in Finnish grassroots cultural work
- Short presentations (tba.)
- Discussion
16:30 Coffee break
17:00 Presentation session 5 (Black Box)
- 17:00 Ingrid Carbone: The conversation-concert: A transformative space for performer and listener
- 17:30 Maria João Guerra Lopes: Beyond the score: Interconnected dimensions in piano learning
18:00 End
Friday 6 November
08:30 Coffee & registration
09:00 Artist keynote: Anni Pohto: The inner work of outer change: Surviving and shaping the changing creative industry
- Singer-songwriter, pianist and producer Anni Pohto — originally from Tampere and now based in London — shares her story of becoming the first Finnish female artist to record her original music in the legendary Abbey Road Studios. She also discusses how her internal healing and recovery from C-PTSD, combined with a Master’s Degree in World Politics, propelled this shift toward an ever clearer artistic vision and career path. In her talk, Anni Pohto will provide tangible tools and exercises she found useful for navigating the ever-changing landscape of the 21st-century music industry and the international creative economy, without forgetting the more holistic approach to what it means to be a creative human and stay truthful to your own inner voice.
10:00 Presentation session 6 (Black Box)
- 10:00 Anni Jääskeläinen: Mental Skills for a Musician!
- 10:20 Carly Markkanen: “Where words fail”: Music participation in a changing linguistic landscape
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Presentation sessions 7 (Black Box) & 8 (Auditorium)
Black Box
- 11:00 Erno Aalto-Urantowka: Improvisation pedagogy – workshop on multiple approaches and practices for diverse learning outcomes in Finnish music school system
- 11:30 Chun Li: Envisioning 2030: Navigating strategic visions and reimagining public specialist music education in Finland through aesthetic care
- 11:50 Alicia Lucendo-Noriega: What do we mean by group-based music programs aimed at social-emotional development? Findings from a scoping review
- 12:10 Giordano Fiorini: From Algorithms to teachers: Validating difficulty in automatically generated music sight-reading exercises
Auditorium
- 11:00 Jenni Pekkarinen: Artists shaping the meaning-making and multi-level governance of sustainability in Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture
- 11:20 Lilja Lehmuskallio: Strategies for change in arts organisations: Towards radical inclusion
- 11:40 Tuulikki Laes: Performing the Political Festival as a research experiment for institutional change
- 12:00 Harri Homi: Music listening as a knowledge-based practice
- 12:20 Laura Valoma: Re-envisioning Finnish cultural policy
12:30 Lunch (self-financed)
13:30 Presentation sessions 9 (Black Box) & 10 (Auditorium)
Black Box
- 13:30 Krishna Nagaraja: PolyMatters: Polyrhythms and polymetries as structural components of genre-hybridising new compositions
- 14:00 Antti Snellman & Kaisa Johanna Vähi: The circumplex model as a compass: Navigating student-centred practice in Finnish and Estonian music schools
- 14:20 Rong Yang: Rethinking possibilities for later-life music education: A cross-cultural case study
- 14:30 Prem Gurung: Transformative approach to gender-inclusive music education in Nepal
Auditorium (Finnish session)
- 13:30 Emilia Soranta: Pienestä voi syntyä suurta: Yhteisöllinen urkutoiminta sosiaalisen ja kulttuurisen kestävyyden rakentajana
- 13:50 Irja Kajander-Vierkens: ”Rupesimme sitte soittamaan Kallen kanssa.” Hannes Hällströmin musiikillisten verkostojen muodostuminen.
- 14:10 Mirka Malmi: Amanda Maier-Röntgen ja kanonisoidut ystävät
14:40 Discussion / closing remarks (Black Box)
15:30 End
How to participate
Registrate by October 29.
Call for presentations
We warmly welcome presentation proposals to the 2026 SibA Research Days, touching the theme of The Change and the Arts, or any other topic or research project you are working on. The event is open to doctoral researchers, research staff, and students of Sibelius Academy and Uniarts Helsinki, as well as to researchers and practitioners outside Uniarts Helsinki.
There are three proposal categories:
- Standard presentations 20 min (15 min pres + 5 min discussion)
- Short presentations 10 min (5 minutes pres + 5 min questions)”
- Recitals 30 min (25 minutes pres + 5 min discussion): Lecture-Recital, which includes both a presentation and an artistic component.
The format and style of the presentations are free. Creative proposals are welcome. Proposals can be submitted in English, Finnish, and Swedish. The seminar program will also include a keynote panel, a special workshop for master students, as well as networking and socializing hours.
The information (in English, Finnish, or Swedish) needed in the form includes:
- Your name
- Type of Presentation (of the above three categories * please note that you can also name two alternatives, i.e. standard and short, which would leave the organizers more room to design the programme)
- Affiliation (doctoral programme, academy, university)
- Title of your presentation
- Abstract (300 words max) * For all types of presentations
- Short Presenter’s BIO (100 words max)
- List of required technical equipment/instruments
- Note if you don’t allow recording of your presentation/recital
Important dates
- Call for presentations out: 2.9.2026
- CFP DL: 25.9.2026
- Notification of acceptance & registration open: (by) 9.10.2026
- Programme released: 22.10.2026
- Registration closed: 29.10.2026
- SRD: 5.-6.11.2026
* Master student forum: A speficic workshop type of a session directed for the master students of SibA who’d like to present and discuss their research ideas. The forum includes brief research presentations (and/or posters) and following joint discussion on research at SibA. Call is distributed specifically by programme leaders and integrated in the teaching activities of programmes (e.g. with a reflection task). A separate invitation and registration will be created for master students attending this session. We also warmly encourage other participants to attend the forum, and students to attend the other SRD sessions. Registrate to submit your proposal to the master student forum. We welcome short presentations of max 5 minutes (pitching format) from current and recently graduated students. Deadline for proposals is 22.10.
** Book table: There is a table for display of books by participants and Uniarts publications. Anyone can bring their own books for display (or for give-away)
Contact
Organizing team
- Toni-Matti Karjalainen, Professor (arts management), Head of Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre
- Kaarina Kilpiö, University Lecturer (music history)
- Lilja Lehmuskallio, Doctoral Researcher (arts management)
- Laura Valoma, Doctoral Researcher (arts management)
- Livia Schweizer, Doctoral Researcher (global music)
- Jannika Lahin, production
The event carries on the discussions of the preceding research days with their main themes of “Society and research in dialogue” (2024), and “Ethics and research in artistic practice” (2025).
We live in a time of profound environmental, societal, political, and technological turmoil, marked by large-scale developments that are reshaping our societies and cultures, and the arts. These transformations create a growing need to understand, adapt to and, perhaps most importantly, actively make change. How can music, the arts and research contribute to this process? What can we do as individual researchers and practitioners? How can we strengthen our voices as a creative community? What kind of meaning-making processes can arts contribute to?
SRD 2026 explores the changing relationships between music and arts research, artistic practice, communities, and society. It asks how research can deepen our understanding of the arts and support meaningful transformation, while considering the roles of communality and communities in shaping cultural meaning-making and artistic experiences. Furthermore, we may reflect on musicians and artistic work, art audiences, authenticity, musical value, and artistic value, examining how these concepts evolve in changing cultural contexts. The seminar brings together perspectives on adapting to change and actively making change—through arts, research, and the communities that connect them. At its core, Change and the Arts hopefully ignites us to explore how artistic and research practices can help us understand the forces shaping our world, navigate uncertainty, and imagine — and enact — new possibilities.
Change and the Arts as a meta-theme also refers to the reform of Uniarts and Sibelius Academy doctoral education and research, concerning structures, practices, curricula, and many other aspects. SRD 2026 is the first one as a joint Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre, serving as a forum where we can explore, discuss and celebrate our multifaceted creative research community – perhaps coming up with new ideas for strengthening our community among the changes.
Programme
Thursday 5 November
08:30 Coffee & registration
09:00 Words of Welcome (Black Box)
- Welcome by Tuuli Talvitie (Vice Dean of research, Sibelius Academy)
- Opening notes by Toni-Matti Karjalainen (Professor, Head of Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre)
09:30 Research Panel Discussion: “Change and the Arts” (Black Box)
- Maarit Kinnunen (Visiting Researcher in University of Lapland, LiveFIN, Suomen Jazzliitto)
- Kai Tuuri (University Researcher, Docent, University of Jyväskylä)
- Meri Kytö (University Lecturer, Docent, University of Turku)
- Kimi Kärki (University Lecturer, Uniarts, Docent, recording and touring artist)
- Moderated by Toni-Matti Karjalainen
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Presentation sessions 1 (Black Box) & 2 (S3101)
Black Box
- 11:00 Gonçalo Cruz: Forgotten bagpipes of the Baltic Sea: The redesign of the säkkipilli in Finland
- 11:30 Livia Schweizer: A score as a tool to observe and explore interdependency
- 11:50 Kumi Shimozaki: When the keyboard size changes: Embodiment and adaptation in piano playing
- 12:10 Emmi Kuittinen: The change of the folk musician’s gaze
S3101 (Finnish session)
- 11:00 Marja Saarela: Harmoninen liike ja emotionaalinen nostatus Cavallin resitatiiveissa
- 11:20 Jenni Lappalainen: Arkistoista esityksiksi ja editioiksi: Ilmari Hannikaisen julkaisemattomat yksinlaulut
- 11:40 Hannu Tolvanen: Iskelmä – mitä se on?
- 12:00 Janne Kivistö: Käsitykset teleologisuudesta Jean Sibeliuksen toisen sinfonian aikalaisvastaanotossa
12:30 Lunch (self-financed)
13:30 Presentation sessions 3 (Black Box) & 4 (S3101)
Black Box
- 13:30 Mercedes Krapovickas: From control to co-agency with the augmented bandoneon
- 14:00 Hanne Närhinsalo: Rethinking musicianship skills: Towards a more holistic pedagogy
- 14:20 Kevin Skelton: A problem with discipline in performing arts higher education
S3101
- 13:30 Uğur Aslan: Atmospheric acoustic palimpsests: Sonic memory and the afterlives of Albania’s bunkers
- 13:50 Mathias Bank: Tower of Almas
- 14:00 Merja “Merzi” Rajala & Katja Thomson: Choirs for ecocide law: Choral activism as public pedagogy
- 14:20 Violeta Simjanovska: Small live music venues and labour infrastructures: Insights from Helsinki
14:40 Coffee break
15:00 Master students’ forum* (Black Box, English/Finnish session), moderator: Toni-Matti Karjalainen
15:00 Opening words
- Samu Pihlajamaa: Musiikinopettajien kokemuksia oppilaan uskonnollisen vakaumuksen vaikutuksesta musiikinopetukseen osallistumiseen
- Veera Hänninen: Yläkoulun musiikinopettajien kokemuksia ryhmänhallinnasta
- Lisa Kalkowski: Norm-critical feminist leadership in Finnish grassroots cultural work
- Short presentations (tba.)
- Discussion
16:30 Coffee break
17:00 Presentation session 5 (Black Box)
- 17:00 Ingrid Carbone: The conversation-concert: A transformative space for performer and listener
- 17:30 Maria João Guerra Lopes: Beyond the score: Interconnected dimensions in piano learning
18:00 End
Friday 6 November
08:30 Coffee & registration
09:00 Artist keynote: Anni Pohto: The inner work of outer change: Surviving and shaping the changing creative industry
- Singer-songwriter, pianist and producer Anni Pohto — originally from Tampere and now based in London — shares her story of becoming the first Finnish female artist to record her original music in the legendary Abbey Road Studios. She also discusses how her internal healing and recovery from C-PTSD, combined with a Master’s Degree in World Politics, propelled this shift toward an ever clearer artistic vision and career path. In her talk, Anni Pohto will provide tangible tools and exercises she found useful for navigating the ever-changing landscape of the 21st-century music industry and the international creative economy, without forgetting the more holistic approach to what it means to be a creative human and stay truthful to your own inner voice.
10:00 Presentation session 6 (Black Box)
- 10:00 Anni Jääskeläinen: Mental Skills for a Musician!
- 10:20 Carly Markkanen: “Where words fail”: Music participation in a changing linguistic landscape
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Presentation sessions 7 (Black Box) & 8 (Auditorium)
Black Box
- 11:00 Erno Aalto-Urantowka: Improvisation pedagogy – workshop on multiple approaches and practices for diverse learning outcomes in Finnish music school system
- 11:30 Chun Li: Envisioning 2030: Navigating strategic visions and reimagining public specialist music education in Finland through aesthetic care
- 11:50 Alicia Lucendo-Noriega: What do we mean by group-based music programs aimed at social-emotional development? Findings from a scoping review
- 12:10 Giordano Fiorini: From Algorithms to teachers: Validating difficulty in automatically generated music sight-reading exercises
Auditorium
- 11:00 Jenni Pekkarinen: Artists shaping the meaning-making and multi-level governance of sustainability in Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture
- 11:20 Lilja Lehmuskallio: Strategies for change in arts organisations: Towards radical inclusion
- 11:40 Tuulikki Laes: Performing the Political Festival as a research experiment for institutional change
- 12:00 Harri Homi: Music listening as a knowledge-based practice
- 12:20 Laura Valoma: Re-envisioning Finnish cultural policy
12:30 Lunch (self-financed)
13:30 Presentation sessions 9 (Black Box) & 10 (Auditorium)
Black Box
- 13:30 Krishna Nagaraja: PolyMatters: Polyrhythms and polymetries as structural components of genre-hybridising new compositions
- 14:00 Antti Snellman & Kaisa Johanna Vähi: The circumplex model as a compass: Navigating student-centred practice in Finnish and Estonian music schools
- 14:20 Rong Yang: Rethinking possibilities for later-life music education: A cross-cultural case study
- 14:30 Prem Gurung: Transformative approach to gender-inclusive music education in Nepal
Auditorium (Finnish session)
- 13:30 Emilia Soranta: Pienestä voi syntyä suurta: Yhteisöllinen urkutoiminta sosiaalisen ja kulttuurisen kestävyyden rakentajana
- 13:50 Irja Kajander-Vierkens: ”Rupesimme sitte soittamaan Kallen kanssa.” Hannes Hällströmin musiikillisten verkostojen muodostuminen.
- 14:10 Mirka Malmi: Amanda Maier-Röntgen ja kanonisoidut ystävät
14:40 Discussion / closing remarks (Black Box)
15:30 End
How to participate
Registrate by October 29.
Call for presentations
We warmly welcome presentation proposals to the 2026 SibA Research Days, touching the theme of The Change and the Arts, or any other topic or research project you are working on. The event is open to doctoral researchers, research staff, and students of Sibelius Academy and Uniarts Helsinki, as well as to researchers and practitioners outside Uniarts Helsinki.
There are three proposal categories:
- Standard presentations 20 min (15 min pres + 5 min discussion)
- Short presentations 10 min (5 minutes pres + 5 min questions)”
- Recitals 30 min (25 minutes pres + 5 min discussion): Lecture-Recital, which includes both a presentation and an artistic component.
The format and style of the presentations are free. Creative proposals are welcome. Proposals can be submitted in English, Finnish, and Swedish. The seminar program will also include a keynote panel, a special workshop for master students, as well as networking and socializing hours.
The information (in English, Finnish, or Swedish) needed in the form includes:
- Your name
- Type of Presentation (of the above three categories * please note that you can also name two alternatives, i.e. standard and short, which would leave the organizers more room to design the programme)
- Affiliation (doctoral programme, academy, university)
- Title of your presentation
- Abstract (300 words max) * For all types of presentations
- Short Presenter’s BIO (100 words max)
- List of required technical equipment/instruments
- Note if you don’t allow recording of your presentation/recital
Important dates
- Call for presentations out: 2.9.2026
- CFP DL: 25.9.2026
- Notification of acceptance & registration open: (by) 9.10.2026
- Programme released: 22.10.2026
- Registration closed: 29.10.2026
- SRD: 5.-6.11.2026
* Master student forum: A speficic workshop type of a session directed for the master students of SibA who’d like to present and discuss their research ideas. The forum includes brief research presentations (and/or posters) and following joint discussion on research at SibA. Call is distributed specifically by programme leaders and integrated in the teaching activities of programmes (e.g. with a reflection task). A separate invitation and registration will be created for master students attending this session. We also warmly encourage other participants to attend the forum, and students to attend the other SRD sessions. Registrate to submit your proposal to the master student forum. We welcome short presentations of max 5 minutes (pitching format) from current and recently graduated students. Deadline for proposals is 22.10.
** Book table: There is a table for display of books by participants and Uniarts publications. Anyone can bring their own books for display (or for give-away)
Contact
Organizing team
- Toni-Matti Karjalainen, Professor (arts management), Head of Sibelius Academy Doctoral Programme and Research Centre
- Kaarina Kilpiö, University Lecturer (music history)
- Lilja Lehmuskallio, Doctoral Researcher (arts management)
- Laura Valoma, Doctoral Researcher (arts management)
- Livia Schweizer, Doctoral Researcher (global music)
- Jannika Lahin, production