The authors of music naturally always remain in the shadow of its performers – especially those who only write music and never perform it themselves. Even though Finland has high-quality education in music, operas, symphony orchestras and all kinds of institutions, art music does not have much of a status in the public sphere. In this marginalised music scene, living composers have it particularly tough.

Of all the forms of western high culture, art music is the most “museic”: it does not have much interest in modern composers, although they are seeking to develop the great tradition of art music. Ensuring good opportunities to work and protecting copyright for composers requires strong interest organisations. I worked in the boards of both the Society of Finnish Composers and the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto for 30 years, 18 as chair of the former and 15 as vice chair of the latter. Both societies offered me an interesting viewpoint to the structures of the music sphere as well as the rapid changes, which were taking place, not nearly all of them positive.

Digitalisation has, on the one hand, brought along a lot of piracy, and on the other given marginal music the possibility to find its listeners all around the world. Composer societies also introduced a great deal of international representative tasks, for me the most pleasant of them in the Nordic Composers Council.