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Baroque violinist and conductor Kreeta-Maria Kentala writes about how attitudes towards baroque music and female conductors have changed during her career.

In 2016 women are still under-represented in classical concert repertoire, never mind the canon. At contemporary music concerts, however, women appear as composers with increasing frequency. How should we address the issue of a composer’s (female) gender in this day and age? Are we really still talking about this, in Finland?

My feeling is that socially active art may be both in-your-face and more subtly influencing; it may mix up meanings in brutal ways, mashing them up, exploring impossible worlds and shaking us up from unheard-of angles.

Growing up in roughly beautiful Lapland has affected Outi Tarkiainen’s personality and her voice as a composer. For her, music is almost like a force of nature, which can change people and their destinies. Andrew Mellor met Tarkiainen in Rovaniemi, just as she had finished her song-cycle The Earth, Spring’s Daughter.

Toivanen is an adept writer and a logical improviser with his own individual voice, who balances his output masterfully between natural-sounding harmonic beauty and bold melodic statements.

Tuuletar is a quite recent addition to the high life of Finnish a cappella groups that has already been successful in international vocal group competitions. The genre headline they use is “vocal folk hop”, which is actually quite suitable for their music.

Amen 2 is the second instalment of Mikko Joensuu’s magnum opus, the triptych Amen 1–3.

Poignant, witty, agile, mischievous, thoughtful, beautiful: this is Timo Alakotila and his piano, alone at last.

Jukka Eskola’s 10-inch EP is not only the debut for the trumpeter’s trio (Mikko Helevä, organ; Teppo Mäkynen, drums), but also the dawn of a new label.