Researchers and composers selected for the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab
Nine young researchers and an equal number of young composers have been selected to participate in the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab, a new initiative from the Baltic Sea Festival in Sveriges Radio’s concert hall Berwaldhallen, Stockholm University and Voksenåsen Music Academies. Together, they will transform research results into musical works performed by ensembles from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra during the Baltic Sea Festival 2023.
Director Elisabet Ljungar will work with the nine constellations of researchers and composers who will together create new works for the Baltic Sea Festival 2023.
– Newly written art music meets new research on the state of the Baltic Sea – and also in dramatized form? A collision between two fundamentally different planets, it might seem. For me, this is an exciting and important experiment and I am incredibly curious about how the units affect each other and what the fusion between them can create in the listener and listener. In the form of intimate ”performances” where notes are crossed with thoughts, the researchers interact with the musicians. Sometimes in collision with each other – sometimes in unison, says Elisabet Ljungar, director.
THE SCIENTISTS
Christina Lin
Master student, in the program “Sustainability, Society and the Environment“, Kiel University, Germany. Research Area: political ecology, more-than-human geographies and social-science coastal research.
Gabriel Freitas
PhD student, Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University. Research area: Atmospheric Science, “Sea spray particles” .
Konstantinos-Marios Vaziourakis
PhD student Department of Ecology and Genetics, Limnology, Uppsala University. Research Area: Biogeochemistry, Ecology, ”The fate of organic matter decomposition from the land to open sea”.
”Life depends on death. All livings things like plants, animals and micro-organisms die, eventually decompose and finally their remains become an important food source, full of nutrients and energy, for the next generation of life. The Baltic Sea and its surroundings, just like the biosphere in general, hold several ecosystems and albeit the fundamental differences between an oak forest, a wheat crop and the deep-sea sediment, the cycling of energy and organic matter is delicately balanced. Over the past decades, humans have been disturbing this balance.”
Kyra Spaan
PhD student Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University. Research Area: Environmental Analytical Chemistry , “Chemical Iceberg: what we know and don’t know”
”Chemicals are all around us, both good ones and bad ones. We know about many of the bad chemicals, which we can measure and regulate. However, as the 17th century French philosopher Rene Descartes stated: “We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe”. The same goes for chemicals; we can only measure what we know…until now!”.
Agata Bigaj
Master student at University: University of Gdańsk. The research is realized and supervised in Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences. Research area: Marine biology – benthic fauna of the Baltic Sea and Arctic coastal regions, ”Influence of specific environmental conditions in river estuary on benthic fauna size structure” .
Agnes Olin
Postdoc, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP), Stockholm University. Research area: Marine Ecology.
Åsa Austin
Postdoc at the Department of Ecology Environment and Plant Sciences Stockholm University. Research Area: Marine Ecology, “The role of reeds in binding carbon and nutrients.”.
”In my research, I investigate the role of reeds in sequestering carbon and nutrients, and what happens when the reeds are cut, when people want to reach the bays of the coast. We also examine the relationship between man and nature. What people who live in and manage the archipelago value in the bays of the coast, what they see as challenges and solutions.”.
Carolin Seiferth
PhD student Stockholm Resilience Center. Research Area: Sustainability Science Stockholm University, Stockholm Resilience Centre , ”Strategy for water and landscape conservation”.
Sriharsha Bhat
PhD student Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan. Research area: Marine Robotics, “Hydrobatics: efficient and agile underwater robots for the Baltic”.
THE COMPOSERS
Mioko Yokoyama
Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki graduate. Part-time teacher in score-playing
Sampo Kasurinen
Alumni of Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Independent researcher and composer with a grant from Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Maya Miro Johnson
Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Anna Berg
Masterstudent i composition, Norges musikkhøgskole og Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.
Heidi Hassinen
Sibelius Academy, Finland.
Jonas Skaarud
Norges musikkhøgskole.
Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu
Sibelius Academy, Finland.
Zacharias Ehnvall
Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden.
David Tudén
Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden.
