Ritva Koistinen-Armfelt

Lecturer in kantele music, Sibelius Academy, the University of the Arts Helsinki

The sound of kantele has fascinated me since I was a child. As a musician, my source of strength has been the will to look for the different dimensions and subtle characteristics of touch. For a long time, this search was instinctive and intuitive. Little by little, it became more and more important to consciously analyse and specify how touch can bring out the sound potential and spectrum of nuances of the kantele. This process has revealed how fundamentally important different qualities of movement and different sensory modalities are for touch and its development.

I chose kantele as my main instrument – or did the kantele choose me? I have been a full-time kantele teacher since 1981: first at the music school of Joensuu (Joensuun musikkiopisto) and since 1987 at the Sibelius Academy. I have performed since I was a child. As a musician, I have been working as a soloist in various roles, as a chamber musician, and in collaboration with singers.

The role of bodily experience and motility in a musician’s work has become more and more significant for me. Many pieces composed for kantele in recent decades have challenged me to find new ways of using the kinaesthetic-technical realisation and timbral possibilities of the kantele. Studying and practising new pieces continues to inspire me in this work.