The new year awaits again with new sounds and adventures! In this letter You get the first glances to our festival program and summer courses. Festival takes place in Viitasaari 2.–7.7.2024.
The construction of the festival program is also already underway. In July 2024, Time of Music will cover a particularly interesting and topical topic on many levels: Participation and interaction in the digital reality of today.
How do we influence things in today’s reality, how are we influenced and how is this reflected in contemporary music and art?
In popular music, contemporary art music and art, a confessional, assertive personality has come to the fore. The festival’s program brings out personal politics and the resilience of different identities.
At the same time, the programme lifts up how we act and how we get influenced in the digital networks of our time that are addictive and inclusive but equally distancing. The new tools of digital technology such as algorithms, gamification and artificial intelligence affect us in many ways, even “insidiously”. We don’t even fully understand all the effects yet.
Viitasaari’s summer will once again provide memorable experiences for the curious mind. One of the main performers of the summer is Laura Bowler, who will bring to Viitasaari Time of Music’s and our partner’s commissioned work Advert (Advertisement) written by her, which premiered in November in Huddersfield. https://www.sounds-now.eu/activities/advert-laura-bowler-2023/
You will hear more about all this in future newsletters and by following our channels: Facebook, Instagram.
Summer courses: composition, collaboration and audience engagement
Next summer, we will have a composer course lead by Jesper Nordin, who has become known for e.g. from its Reactional music software, which creates opportunities for the realization of game music.
One of the summer courses focuses on communal techniques and audience work in public spaces, and is piloted by the leading name in inclusive audience work in the contemporary music field, composer and oboist Catherine Milliken.
Application for courses that take place 2.–7.7. in Viitasaari, Finland starts in January – so follow our channels where you will find detailed course information to be published next month.
Things to read at the turn of the year:
We celebrated with our festival last summer the visit of John Cage to Viitasaari 40 years ago. Disucssion still goes on! What really happened 40 years ago?
There have been clichés circulating about the event about cutting twigs, collecting mushrooms and playing with a milk churn, but what did the guru really talk about in his course? Read Juhani Nuorvala‘s article (translated by Hanna-Mari Latham)
https://fmq.fi/articles/what-did-john-cage-really-teach-in-viitasaari
Good thematic thinking makes a festival more than the sum of the concerts, but in practice thematic curating can work on many levels: as a loose title, a source of design inspiration, arousing the audience’s interest, or a narrative thread reaching every detail. Read about Harri Kuusisaari’s story, what the six festival directors – among them our artistic director – say about their themes and their implementation. (Translated by Aleksi Koponen).
https://fmq.fi/articles/what-makes-a-music-festival-theme
We thank you all for the past year. Have a wonderful Holiday Season and see you in Viitasaari again in July!