Program 2025

Does music still live in the concert hall – or has it already moved on? Does it reside in a composer’s mind, or in shared creation between artists, spaces, and technologies? Maybe music now lives in field recordings, in video calls, in the attention span of a scrolling thumb. Or maybe it lives in silence, in waiting, in refusal.

Contemporary music today is more than sound – it’s space, body, politics, memory, and friction. We may need to rethink our “fixed ideas” about music’s home: from the lone genius in control, to multi-signature collaborations; from Western paradigms to global hybridities; from static formats to immersive, time-bending experiences.

This workshop invites participants from all backgrounds to reflect together:
Where do you find music most alive today – and where would you want it to live next?

Welcome to discuss, brainstorm and build a vision of where music lives now and where we would like it to live in the future.

In the workshop, we will discuss themes together and work in small groups. Organised in collaboration with the City of Viitasaari, as part of the project “Music of our Time”. The workshop will be led by Vilja Ruokolainen.

The event will be held on Tuesday, July 1st in English and on Thursday, July 3rd in Finnish. You can find the description in Finnish here.

A Workshop on the Future of Contemporary Music in Finland

Does music still live in the concert halls – or also in libraries, schools, online spaces, country roads, and municipal cultural strategies?

Is music’s home in the composer’s mind – or in communities, festivals, educators, and civil servants?

This open discussion explores the future of contemporary music from a Finnish perspective. We ask: what kinds of structures and collaborations are needed for music to thrive freely and vibrantly in 2030?

Together we’ll reflect on questions such as:

• How can a small locality be a vital part of the contemporary music scene?
• How can young composers and musicians find space and support for their artistic work in Finland?
• How could festivals, municipalities, schools, and institutions create more together?
• Can music have a home that is not just a venue, but also a space for growth, encounter, and transformation?

Welcome to share thoughts, co-create ideas, and help shape a vision of where music lives now – and where we’d like it to live in the future.

The event is organised in collaboration with the City of Viitasaari as part of the Music of Our Time project. The discussion is moderated by Vilja Ruokolainen.

The event will be held on Tuesday, July 1st in English and on Thursday, July 3rd in Finnish. You can find the description in Finnish here.

The event will feature a screening of Megan-Leigh Heilig’s documentary film The Politics of Participation, followed by a discussion of the documentary’s themes as part of the Sounds Now project.

Heilig’s film documents the projects and enablers of the Sounds Now project (2019–2024). The essay-style film consists of interviews filmed at contemporary music festivals across Europe that participated in the project.

The film explores the ethics and critical issues of participatory projects, curating diversity, the concept of inclusivity, and transparency in who is on stage and why. Above all, the film is a tribute to the work, voices, and minds that made Sounds Now possible. Featuring Graham McKenzie, Heloisa Amaral, Johan Tallgren, and Esther Ursem, among others.

Johan Tallgren discusses with Claudia Molitor her Listen to My World installation, which was experienced in Viitasaari in 2022 as part of the Sounds Now project, as well as Molitor’s work and the topics raised by the documentary in general.