Events

Date: 14/10/2025

Location: Larger Seminar Room, Faculty of Music, Schwarzman Centre, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, University of Oxford, OX2 6AH

A one-day seminar exploring Finland’s varied musical past and its successful musical present. Speakers will discuss various aspects of Finnish musical culture. From Finland’s early musical beginnings in connection to Karelian Finnish folklore and its national instrument, the kantele, to the rapid development of the Finnish classical music scene in the late 1800s and the international success of Jean Sibelius.

The musical cultures of two ethnic minorities – the Karelians of Finland and the Russian Republic of Karelia who speak Karelian, Finnish, and Russian; and the Kvens, a community in northern Sweden and Finland who speak Meänkieli, a language closely related to Finnish – will be discussed in connection to cultural and linguistic revitalisation, and music as a space for demarginalisation. Finland’s status as a heavy metal powerhouse will be explored in a talk focusing on the nation’s music pedagogy and the various innovations that have taken place in recent years.  There will be coffee and tea available at the start, during the break, and wine, juice, and nibbles for informal mingling at the end. 

(There are both in-person and online ticket options available)