Researchers and composers announced for the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab 2024

Six composers and six researchers have been selected to participate in the 2024 edition of the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab. Together with director Elisabet Ljungar, the researchers and composers create works that combine Baltic Sea-related research with specially composed music. This year's themes are viability and circularity. The research presented revolves around new visions and innovations and how society can change from linear to circular systems.
 

The specially written works will be performed during the Baltic Sea Festival by musicians from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra together with the researchers themselves. The goal is for both the audience and the participants to be enriched with new perspectives on the communicative power of music as well as new insights into and curiosity about research conducted around the Baltic Sea region.
 

– Ahead of the 2023 festival, we had a vision of what the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab would be. The result exceeded our expectations: the audience got to experience a completely new performing arts concept, where the researchers were challenged to make their research available in harmony with the music and the composers to create music based on research topics that can contribute to a more sustainable environment, says Emma Nyberg, project manager for the Baltic Sea Festival.
 

The participating researchers are doctoral students or postdocs working in one of the countries around the Baltic Sea. Their research should be applicable to the Baltic Sea region and its future challenges. The researchers are appointed by the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University and Formas. The composers, selected by Voksenåsen Music Academies, are in their final year of education or already have a master's degree in composition. The director is present in the entire creative process, to help the researchers bring out the important points in the lectures and with the verbal performance, and to help the composers with strengthening the musical expression and tying the performance together into a whole.
 

Participants, Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab 2024

Researchers

Åsa Callmer (Sweden/Sverige)
Environmental sociology, Örebro University

Greta Gyraitė (Lithuania/Litauen)
Marine Research Institute, Klaipėda University
Robin Bonné (Denmark/Danmark)
Aarhus University
Natasja Börjeson (Sweden/Sverige)
Environmental Science, Stockholm University
Isolde Puts (Netherlands/Nederländerna)
Aarhus University
Emilia Witkowska Nery (Poland/Polen)
Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences

Composers
Pietari Kaasinen, Finnish, Swedish
Agita  Reke, Latvian
Luis Fernando Amaya, Mexican
Dominik Puk, Polish 
Otto Nuoranne, Finnish
Philip Dutton, British-Czech

The Baltic Sea Festival is organized by Berwaldhallen, Sveriges Radio’s concert hall, and is one of Europe's leading classical music festivals featuring the finest artists, orchestras and conductors from the Baltic Sea region. For twenty years, the festival has functioned as a meeting place for great concert experiences as well as initiatives that contribute to a sustainable Baltic Sea region. The Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab is an interdisciplinary experiment and is part of the festival program. The Baltic Sea Festival 2024 takes place August 23rd - September 1st.

About the participating institutions
Stockholm Resilience Center is an international interdisciplinary center at Stockholm University for research and education on sustainable development. The center is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University focuses on research and teaching in environmental science. Issues such as chemicals in the environment and humans and climate change have a large focus. The department's researchers often participate in collaborations with Swedish and European authorities to produce data for decision-making.

The Voksenåsen Composer Academy is a talent program for young composers who are at the beginning of their professional career. The program contributes to networking, mentoring and provides access to new arenas and professional development. The Composer Academy is part of the Voksenåsen Music Academies, which is run by the National Gift Voksenåsen. The project is financially supported by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB and Furestiftelsen.

Formas is a government research council for sustainable development that finances research and innovation, develops strategies, analyzes and evaluates. The business areas are within the environment, land-based industries and community building. Formas conducts research compilations that aim to make it easier for Sweden to reach our environmental goals. In addition, they communicate about research and research results.

Anssi Karttunen, Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg conceived Creative Dialogue together with Sibelius-Academy in 2007. The ambition of the Creative Dialogue is to inspire young performers and composers to engage in a dialogue that benefits not only the two parties but the music life in general. Performers and composers often study in the same institutions, but are seldom encouraged to find out how much they can to learn from each other. Apart from the immediate personal relations that result from such a dialogue, it will lead to a deeper understanding of how composer-performer friendships have affected the history of music.
 

Find more information about Baltic Sea Festival Sceince Lab and the participants at balticseafestival.com
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