TMJ X Aboagora

Avant Aboagora: Courage, resistance and musical activism across the centuries

Before the Songs of Judith concert, musician and scholar Marika Kivinen is to give a talk in the Avant Aboagora public lecture series on musical activism and courage in various resistance movements. This sets a tone of sedition for the concert and provides context.

Marika Kivinen is a mezzosoprano, a historian, a gender studies scholar, a racism scholar and a columnist. She is completing a doctoral dissertation in general history at Åbo Akademi University on exoticism and racialisation in early 20th-century vocal music and culture. Kivinen performs regularly as a singer, having appeared for instance as mezzo soloist in the Requiems of Verdi and Mozart. This spring Kivinen released an album on Refrain Records, on which Marika and her long-time collaborator Jenna Ristilä perform Christian Holmqvist’s solo songs. She is a voice teacher at the Arts Academy of the Turku University of Applied Sciences and sings alto with Ensemble MMXX. She is on the Board of Directors of Suoni, a research association promoting activist musicological research.

Aboagora is a meeting place for artists, scientists and the public. Now in its 14th year, it is held at the Sibelius Museum in Turku on 28–30 August 2024. The theme this year is ‘Mars, the Bringer of War’. The Avant Aboagora talk preceding the aforementioned concert is open to the general public; admission is free.