Collage of Kerttu Wanne & Astrid Joutseno by Samuel Sipola

Exploring Musical Inclusions and Exclusions

Time: 17.5.2024 17:00

Venue: HCAS Common Room, Fabianinkatu 24, Helsinki

Event description

Music has a reputation among music makers and listeners as a binding agent. It can deliver experiences of unity and foster belonging. Often music is present in moments of emotional meaning making such as rituals, celebrations and in pedagogy to name some broad social and cultural situations. Yet not everybody is welcome to participate, to make music, to play, sing, compose, perform, let alone record, publish or enter the so-called music business. Assigning meaning and value to music isn’t a simple process. Music can appear as a hierarchical system: ability, style, taste, and relation to tradition are some traits that can be mobilized to police participation. In fact, music can become an experience of exclusion, a dying of a dream and sometimes a thing that one either does in a certain way or not at all. In this concert and panel discussion musicologists, musicians, music pedagogues and researchers come together to discuss musical inclusion and exclusion.

At this HCAS Salon we enjoy performances by musicians and researchers and hear a panel discussion. We will also experience singing together.

This event is moderated by Astrid Swan, Fellow in Arts at the HCAS. 
Inspiration for the salon came from Lina Klymenko, Core Fellow at the HCAS who shared her experience of exclusion from music as a child. The evening is also the product of discussions with Maria Konoshenko and Nicole Hassoun who both initiated musical collaboration and discussion with Astrid. These encounters highlighted the potential that music may hold for affective connection and disconnection.

Musical performances
Emmi Kujanpää, doctoral researcher and artist
Maria Konoshenko, researcher
Astrid Swan, artist and researcher & Nicole Hassoun, researcher
Choir-leader Johanna Lehtinen-Schnabel, Opi-suomea-laulaen choir leader, doctoral researcher

Panel participants
Emmi Kujanpää
Tanja Tiekso, musicologist
Johanna Lehtinen-Schnabel 
Nina Öhman, musicologist HCAS

Panelist & performer bios

Emmi Kujanpää is a doctoral researcher, pedagogue, and folk musician who has worked internationally on Finno-Karelian and Bulgarian singing for more than 15 years. Her doctoral research examines gender and activism in contemporary Eastern European folk singing. Kujanpää performs as a solo artist and is also a member of the Celenka Trio, the 2021 Emma award-winning folk music ensemble. In her compositions and music videos Kujanpää deals with different aspects of femininity and transgenerationality. She tells stories about goddesses and #metoo experiences through vocal ornamentation, traditional laments, and dissonance.

Tanja Tiekso is a PhD and associate professor in musicology, writer and musicians, currently working at University of Helsinki as senior researcher in project City as Space of Rules and Dreaming (Kone Foundation 2021–2025).

Johanna Lehtinen-Schnabel is a choir conductor/music teacher (MuM) and a doctoral researcher at the University of the Arts Helsinki (Sibelius Academy).

Nina Öhman (PhD, M.B.A) is a musicologisit studying women’s roles in music cultures, the singing voice, and American popular music. She currently works as a Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is the editor-in-chief of Musiikin suunta journal. She serves as the vice-chair of the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology (SES) and as the President of the board of the Finnish American Studies Association (FASA).

Maria Konoshenko is a researcher working on the musical aspects of language at the University of Helsinki and an award-winning singer (mezzo-soprano) of Russian origin. Starting out as a performer of Renaissance and Baroque music, she later moved on to the 20th century repertoire ranging from Russian art songs to tangos and folk music. 

Nicole Hassoun is Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University. She is the author of Globalization and Global Justice: Shrinking Distance, Expanding Obligations (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Global Health Impact: Extending Access on Essential Medicines for the Poor (Oxford University Press, 2020), and A Minimally Good Life: What We Owe to Others and What We Can Justifiably Demand  (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), and has published widely in philosophy, economic, and health journals.

Astrid Joutseno/Swan is the Fellow in the Arts at the Helsinki Collegium. As an award-winning songwriter Swan has published seven albums internationally. Her latest album D/other came out in 2021. In August 2024 Swan publishes her debut novel, Noitarakastaja (S&S). Joutseno/Swan’s postdoctoral research focuses on grief, the processual connections between making art and researching, and life writing. In HCAS Joutseno/Swan examines grief’s role in generational (dis)connections across national, ethnic, sexual or gendered definitions.