7th Folk Mu­sic Re­searchers’ Sym­po­sium

Programme 27 February

08:30–09:15 Registration and coffee
09:15–09:30 Welcoming address and practical information (Black Box)

09:30–10:30 Keynote (Black Box)

Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman: Passing On Sámi Vocal Traditions in Our Time: Between Intimacy and Publicity

10:30–10:45 Break

10:45–12:15 Sessions 1a–c (90 min)

1a Black Box

• Neea Lamminmäki: Rethinking music school education through Näppäri: Intergenerational meaning-making towards socio-cultural sustainability (30min)
• Pankaj Rawat: Feminist Ethnomusicologies of Emotion and Ecology: Women’s Agency, Performance, and Cultural Sustainability in the Folk Songs of the Uttarakhand HimalayasPerformance (30min)
• Pauliina Syrjälä: Starting the Day with Open Senses: The Pedagogical Possibilities of Everyday Improvisation Practice (30min)

1b Inkeri

• Marie Fielding: Innovative practice, utilising self-assessment. (30 min)
• Emmi Kuittinen: The artistic practice and ethical issues of a folk singer in the context of folk traditions expressing grief (30min)
• Artturi Vuorinen: Soittajalähtöinen soitinkehitys: yksirivisen haitarin prototyypin rakentaminen (15min)

1c Tanssistudio

• Workshop Juhana Nyrhinen: Rapapalli – Uulu’s Sustainable Instrument Making Workshop (60min)
• Workshop Marjo Smolander: Osallistava kantelekonsertti (30min)

12:15–13:45 Lunch, followed by relocation to the R Building

13:45–15:15 Sessions 2a–b (90 min)

2a Kamarimusiikkisali

• Susanne Rosenberg: Giving space, giving time, giving flow – Shadow singing as a method for attention in Folk Song Lab (30min)
• David Johnson: Sustaining Nordic singing traditions through online networks (30min)
• Garbiel Arruda: Learning to Be a Sambista: Communities of Practice and Situated Learning in the Carnival of Belo Horizonte (30min)

2b R-510

• Workshop Maija Karhinen-Ilo: Participatory Song and Dance (60min)
• Pilvi Järvelä: Integrating Folk Music Aesthetics into Piano Pedagogy: Developing An Online Learning Resource (30 min)

15:15–15:30 Break

15:30–16:30 Panel session (Kamarimusiikkisali)

Kaisa Rönkkö, Matti Hakamäki, Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman, others tbc: Future visions for strengthening ecology in folk music education
Chair: Vilma Timonen

17:00–19:00 Evening gathering (Agora, Musiikkitalo)

Programme 28 February

09:15–09:30 Morning session

09:30–10:30 Sessions 3a–c (60 min)

3a Organo

• Sanda Joyce: “Samhradh Samhradh” and Beyond: Irish Song as Environmental Archive (30 min)
• Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä & Outi Valo: The concept of folk music in Finland in the 2020s: perceptions, politics, and visions (30 min)

3b Auditorio

• Aurora Fustinoni: Christina Nordqvist – den finlandssvenska kantelekulturens traditionsbärare (15 min)
• Pihla Perämäki: Laajennetut soittotekniikat improvisoivan kansanmusiikkiviulistin työkaluna (15 min)
• Tuula Sharma Vassvik: Luohti as radical empathy – embodying the land (30min)

3c Tanssistudio

• Workshop Alina Kivivuori & Suvi Oskala: Folk it! camp’s pedagogical goals and practises (60 min)

10:30–10:45 Break

10:45–11:45 Sessions 4a–c (60 min)

4a Organo

• Olof Misgeld: Hearing movement, seeing music. (30 min)
• Emmi Kujanpää: Applying Intersectional Feminist Pedagogy in a Transnational Folk Singing Collaboration in Finland and Bulgaria 2018–2022 (30 min)

4b Auditorio

• Anni Järvelä: Folk music and cultural sustainability in higher music education: Centria University of Applied Sciences’ music pedagogy program as a case study (30 min)
• Oona Sinkko: Kolme esimerkkiä kansanmusiikin opetuksen toteutumisesta musiikin taiteen perusopetusta tarjoavissa oppilaitoksissa 2020-luvulla) (15 min)
• Janeta Österberg: Insamlingen av Finlandssvensk folkmusik i Replot och Björköby – en sammanställning över Olof Reinhold och Wilhelm Sjöbergs samlingar samt en komparativ analys av dessa (15 min)

4c Tanssistudio

• Workshop Sanni Virta: Equity & Accessibility in Folk Music Educational Framework – Practices and Applications to Implement in Folk Music Pedagogy

11:45–13:00 Lunch 

13:00–14:30 Sessions 5a–c (90 min)

5a Organo

• Vilma Timonen: Community-Driven Approaches and Living Heritage as Foundations of Folk Music Education (30 min)
• Kristiina Ilmonen: Developing the Pine Flute for Contemporary Practice: Instrumental Ecologies in Folk Music (30 min)
• Jo Asgeir Lie: Folk Culture education as a pedagogical principle (30 min)

5b Auditorio

• Åsa Àva Fredheim: Stories of Reclaiming Yoik (30min)
• Piia Siirala: Omat kenttäaineistot ja kenttämuistiinpanot tšuktšien henkilölaulua koskevan tutkimuksen pohjana (30 min)
• Viliina Silvonen: Karelian laments and cultural ownership (30 min)

5c Tanssistudio

• Workshop Minna Koskenlahti: Redefining social structures as a female percussionist (30 min)
• Puro Paju & Elisa Seppänen: Intercultural Music Education – Multisensory and Creative Methods (60 min)

14:30–15:00 Coffee Break (30 min)

15:00–16:00 Sessions 6a–c (60 min)

6a Organo

• Unni Løvlid: Your tonality is not my tonality -meetings between the performer, the composer and the (micro)tonalityThe (60 min)

4b Auditorio

• Gertrud Maria Huber: Alpine Yodeling: Raising awareness and building sustainable futures with a local musical tradition (30 min)

4c Tanssistudio

• Workshop Suvi Oskala & Kirsi Vinkki: Accompaniment skills as a tool for teaching courage, improvisation and understanding of groove and other musical phenomena to violinists (60 min)

16:00-16:45 Closing session (Organo)

Chair Kristiina Ilmonen

Call for papers

The VII Symposium of Folk Music Researchers envisages the role of folk music education in building sustainable futures. The need to create visions is based, among other things, on the UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education (2024), which strongly emphasises the role of arts education in addressing sustainability challenges. According to UNESCO, arts education, including folk music education, should be built on aspects of cultural and social sustainability in particular, but with ecological sustainability as a boundary condition. 

Culturally sustainable education involves, among other things, a holistic view of sustainability, support for cultural identities and the future-oriented safeguarding and enabling of cultural rights. Social sustainability encompasses the objectives of equality, inclusion, and the well-being of individuals and communities, as well as safeguarding fundamental rights and basic conditions for a good life that are passed down from one generation to the next. 

The symposium will approach folk music education from an ecological perspective, where the sustainability of intangible musical heritage and broader social and cultural sustainability can be understood as intertwined aspects of the past and future. The ecological perspective emphasises the link between music education and social phenomena and social systems, and thus its role and responsibility in addressing current societal challenges.

The symposium’s ecological and future-oriented perspective aims to inspire scholars and educators in the field to envision a broad and diverse range of contextual perspectives for folk music education, which can combine the vitality of traditions with educational and other broader sustainability goals. The symposium will thus provide a multi-perspective, international meeting place for researchers, educators, teachers, educational practitioners and musicians working in folk music research and/or education. 

We welcome scientific, artistic, and educational proposals. Contributions relevant to the field can take many forms. Connecting to the overarching theme of sustainability, proposals may address any aspect of traditional music and education, including empirical research, philosophical or artistic research, promising and innovative practices, professional development, conceptual reflection, and perspectives on issues of power relations and minority groups. We particularly encourage proposals that combine research and practice. 

We invite you to submit your proposals via e-mail as PDF documents to pilvi.jarvela@uniarts.fi by 1.11.2025. Please state in the headline the type of your proposal, following the format:

1. Paper presentation (20min +10min QA): Title of your presentation, max 300 words abstract
2. Panel presentation (60min +10min QA): Title of the panel: A 250-word abstract of the entire panel and a max 300-word summary of each participant’s contribution, stating the relationship of each participant’s presentation to the overall topic of the panel.
3. Student corner (10min +5min QA): Title of your presentation, max 300 words abstract. Bachelor’s and Master’s level students, as well as early-stage doctoral researchers, are welcome to present their research topics and areas of specialisation in the Student Corner.
4. Workshop (45min +15min QA): Title of your workshop, max 300 words description of the content of the workshop.  Please mention also if you would need any instruments or other equipment organised for your workshop. Note, however, that we can not necessarily guarantee availability!
    

Steering committee

• Vilma Timonen
• Maija Karhinen-Ilo
• Pilvi Järvelä
• Anni Järvelä
• Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman

Organisation committee

• Pilvi Järvelä
• Tiina Halonen
• Vilma Timonen

More information

kts2026@uniarts.fi