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

The Baltic Sea Festival’s partners Stockholm University, Voksenåsen Musikkakademier and Formas have selected twelve international participants for a new round of the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab – where research is presented in specially written pieces of music. 

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 are performed during the Baltic Sea Festival by musicians from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra together with the researchers themselves. The aim is that both the audience and the participants will be enriched with new perspectives on the communicative power of music as well as new insights and curiosity about research conducted around our water environments, and more specifically the Baltic Sea. 

– We had a vision of how the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab would be for this year’s festival. The result lived up to 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 created 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. The 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 are in their final year of education or already have a master’s degree in composition, and are selected by Voksenåsen Musikkakademier. The director is present in the entire creative process, for the researchers with bringing out the important points in the lectures and with the verbal performance, for the composers with strengthening the musical expression and tying the performance together into a whole. 

THE SCIENTISTS

Åsa Callmer

Researcher, Örebro University

”I believe that music can engage our emotions and help us to better understand complex interconnections – something that we urgently need to address the world’s sustainability challenges. The Science Lab makes it possible to communicate my research to a wider audience in new and engaging ways. I feel very inspired about this collaborative and creative process, and I am excited to see what will happen when music and science blend together!”

Greta Gyraitė

Researcher, MRI, Klaipeda University/ LSC, Vilnius University

”Music and its pitch, rhythm, and structure are full of meaning; they help to develop a context for verbal understanding. Therefore, through my involvement in the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab, I expect to engage and connect with a broader audience, effectively conveying complex scientific concepts related to emerging diseases in the Baltic Sea by utilizing music as a universal language and a powerful tool in science communication.”

Robin Bonné

Researcher, Aarhus University/Århus universitet

”About 10 years ago in Aarhus, a microbe was discovered that made us rewrite our biology textbooks: cable bacteria. These creatures conducts electricity just like an electric wire, in the mud of the Baltic Sea and beyond. Like many researchers working with cable bacteria, I fell in love with these unique lifeforms and want to share their story with the world. Having a personal passion for music and science communication, I’m thrilled that cable bacteria will soon be able to listen to their own song.”

Natasja Börjeson 

Researcher, Stockholm University/Stockholms universitet

”By participating in the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab I hope to contribute with a small piece of knowledge on the challenge of reaching a Baltic Sea that is unaffected by hazardous substances from human activities. I also hope to be inspired, find new ways of thinking and to meet a new audience.”

Isolde Puts

Researcher, Aarhus University

Emilia Witkowska Nery

Researcher, Institute of Physical Chemistry Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

”The work of a scientist is very similar to that of an artist. We develop our manual skills and techniques in the laboratory, spend hours discovering what people did before us and need creativity to think of something new. I hope that, through interactions with other creative minds at Science Lab of the Baltic Sea Festival, I can look at my work from another perspective and maybe discover some new angle.”

THE COMPOSERS

Otto Nuoranne

Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.

“It’s exciting when, as a composer, you get to step out of the sandbox of music and use your craft to communicate and collaborate with other forms of art or thought. I’m greatly looking forward to learning, making new connections, and sharing the whole experience with others this coming August. See you in Stockholm!”

Luis Fernando Amaya

Norges Musikkhøgskole (NMH-Norwegian Academy of Music)—Studies: Continuing Studies in Live Electronics

“As a composer, I rarely find inspiration in musical or artistic matters. Rather, the world around me and the beings who inhabit it have always fascinated me and often make their way into my creative processes, one way or another. Collaborating with a researcher, especially one focused on ecology, immediately caught my interest. I’m genuinely looking forward to learning from and finding inspiration in the works of composers and researchers across the Baltic Region. I’m excited to explore how my music and perspective can contribute to their endeavours.”

Pietari Kaasinen

Alumnus of Kungliga musikhögkolan, the Royal College of Music in Stockholm

“Applying to the programme felt like a natural continuation of what I have been occupied with in my creative work recently – dealing with musical depictions of ecological themes, often in interdisciplinary settings. I am very much looking forward to learning more about communicating topical concepts through music and performance.”

Agita Reke

Institute of Sonology, Haag

”This project intrigued me and I felt curiosity to create music through a collaboration with a researcher. As a composer and sound artist I believe that raising awareness about Baltic Sea issues and protecting nature in general is important. I am excited to see what possibilities this collaboration holds!”

Dominik Puk

Alumnus of the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, Poland

”I am deeply convinced that music is a way and means (and sometimes an obligation) of transmitting knowledge, experiences, beliefs and will. Especially about the most important things – a sustainable society is certainly one of them. It is a great privilege and honor to be able to join the team. Thing which I am most looking forward to is a cooperation with a researcher, which may lead to amazing new areas of meeting art and science.”