Foreword to Tampere Vocal Music Festival by Merzi Rajala

Welcome to Tampere Vocal Music Festival!

Why do I want to sing and make others sing? Could the Tampere Vocal Music Festival invite us to consider these questions together this year?

As a choir director, I feel I am an artist whose playing technique is largely based on pedagogy. After all, people are the instruments. The result of the work falls into the public pedagogy sector. So I want to make music with people to express or explore something. The process is important, it is the very essence of life. The result is like a photograph of flowing river water that is already somewhere else. Art is a way for me to seek connection with my inner self, to structure life and the world around me, to connect with others and to communicate intuitively and holistically.

What could this communication achieve, and should art achieve anything? What goals and values can choral music have? Whose voice should be heard, are some voices and values more important than others and why? Can those values coexist, without any order of precedence? Can we learn from each other and each other’s values through singing? After all, we are all the same at our core – we need love, security and being seen, we long for joy, beauty and a sense of meaning.

We singers know that one of music’s superpowers is to deepen our understanding of even complex phenomena. Singing offers a direct connection between feeling and knowing, producing an experience that at its best creates agency and action. So can art, in this case, choral music and the human voice, take us together towards a world that corresponds with our values – towards the future we want?

All performances heard at the festival contain an opinion, they carry with them not only the intrinsic value that music itself deserves but also the treatment of value-based themes. Man’s relationship to nature, to other people, to himself. The concerts will take a stand on issues such as international criminal law, the UN’s global development goals and the challenges of human life in relationships. In addition, we will sing and rejoice together – and a lot.

At the heart of the events is a stunning, inclusive Choral Review open to all, a vocal ensemble competition, diverse workshops, and a Choir Forum, the living room of the festival that will be built in the lobby of Tampere Hall. At the Choir Forum, you can meet others, sing together, get excited about new ideas and projects, sample world music, hear choir performances or even participate in choir blind dates. The Choir Forum programme also offers the opportunity to get to know the festival performers and hear about the backgrounds, reasons and values of the performances selected for the programme.

The five-day festival offers a huge number of events that make the Tampere Vocal Music Festival the legendary event that it is, now celebrating its 50th anniversary. The anniversary will be celebrated by singing together in the Main Auditorium of Tampere Hall. The Grand Anniversary Sing will be led by all the artistic directors of the festival so far.

Welcome to hear, be heard, meet, be in touch, rejoice, and exchange voices and thoughts with each other. See you in Tampere!