New research materials - Viljanen received the Cultura Foundation Grant (Juhlarahasto)

New materials for Elina Viljanen's research on the reception of Soviet music in Finland

Elina Viljanen received material for research use in September 2023 as a donation from, Heikki Loikkanen, the widower of late  Manager Marianna Kankare-Loikkanen who was Communications and Marketing of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/City of Helsinki. Kankare-Loikkanen was a musicologist who spoke perfect Russian and studied Soviet music. She was especially interested in the Soviet reception of Shostakovich’s music. Kankare-Loikkanen wrote to the Rondo music magazine regularly and hosted various Soviet musician guests in Finland. Her home archives include correspondence with Shostakovich researcher Sofia Khentova and music critic Seppo Heikinheimo, photographs of artists, literature on Soviet music, art and literature, newspaper clippings on Soviet culture, notes, e-mail conversation, music magazines and research articles from the years 1960-2017. 

With the help of Cultura Foundation Grant (Juhlarahasto) in 2024, Viljanen is able to organize these materials for research use. She will hand some of the correspondence over to the National Archives. One of Viljanen's research interests is the reception of Russian music in Finland. She is currently writing about Erik Tawaststjerna's trips to the Soviet Union in the late 1940s and his Soviet music criticism in Helsingin Sanomat. Tawaststjerna worked as a professor of musicology when Kankare-Loikkanen studied musicology in the 1970s at the University of Helsinki. Also music critic Seppo Heikinheimo was Tawaststjerna's student. Heikinheimo's Soviet music criticism is very well known in Finland. This all forms a rather interesting cultural history.