Pianist Rants

Dear reader, this is the only guide you'll ever need for memorising music. If you want to do it 'like a pro' then here's the real inside view on how it works. Ready? Didn't think so.

First you need to find a conference or some such event to sign up for - I chose the Gender and Musicianship -study days at the Sibelius Academy. Then you should come up with a swanky abstract. Mine was "Sex in Sonata Form", in which I promised to do feminist music analysis. (Truth be told my presentation was...

This year, dear Santa, I would love...​

A little while ago I was told that research cannot be activist and objective at the same time. Doing activist research is apparently comparable to researching lung cancer with funding from a tobacco company - a highly suspicious activity. Good research and good science is objective and does not aim for specific goals. The research needs to be...

I am beginning my doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy this autumn, and the first concert will take place next spring. The main idea of my concert series is to showcase Finnish women composers from the 19th century onwards. (Well, there were maybe three composers in total in Finland before the 19th century, so... And to be honest, even in...

​I find making concert programs both​ endlessly fascinating and very frustrating​. Here's some thoughts about the process.​

According to Wikipedia, 'absolute music is non-representational' - it doesn't try to describe anything. It isn't made for a specific purpose either, for dancing, a church service, or something like that. It just is. The term has been used since the mid-19th century, but the idea was already there a hundred years earlier. Absolute music was...

​After a year of the C-business, it's time to take stock.

This week I listened through Women musicians -study days, arranged by the University of Arts History Forum and the DocMus and MuTri doctoral schools. The days included a multitude of topics, all somehow connected to the women in music -theme. Listening to the speakers, I noticed that at some point all of them seemed to be talking...

First and foremost I'd like a covid-19 vaccine - one that actually ends the pandemic and the restrictions. I think we've all seen enough of this virus business by now.Snow to Helsinki, in large quantities. And minus degrees, preferably lower than 10°C, for a couple of months. Finnish winter darkness + rain + covid = total blackness of the soul.The...

Stress and fatigue. How could they possibly have anything to do with a classical musician?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about gender, and now I have a lot of questions. What I don't have is answers, but if you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.