Kristiina Ilmonen

Among the Finnish contemporary folk music movement pioneers, professor Kristiina Ilmonen is a performing musician, composer, educator, researcher and folk music professional. She specialises in Finnish traditional music, wooden flutes, percussion, interdisciplinary artistic work and improvisation. Ilmonen performs solo with folk winds and in various ensembles, has toured in over 20 countries and plays on over 30 CDs. She has worked extensively with free improvisation, contemporary dance, theatre and site-specific art. She has received many scholarships and national awards for her artistic work. Ilmonen has worked since 2014 as Professor of Folk Music at the Sibelius Academy, leading a doctoral unit of 20 students and a Bachelor's and Masters's level education of 60 students. She has three decades of experience supervising Bachelor and Master level students and ten years experience of supervising Doctoral level students. She has been teaching children and amateur musicians since the early 1980s. She has lectured about Finnish folk music, folk music pedagogy, artistic research, improvisation and assessment in music education in Finland and abroad. She was the Head of the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department from 1998–2004 and has been developing the Department’s syllabus, educational philosophy and methodology as one of the primary teachers since 1989. With her Swedish, Danish and Norwegian colleagues, she has designed and started Sibelius Academy´s first international Master´s Programme, the Nordic Master in Folk Music. She has been an examiner of doctoral dissertations in Finland and Ireland and is tutoring postgraduate students with diverse topics in music at the Sibelius Academy. Ilmonen is currently a member of the University of the Arts Helsinki Board. She has been the Vice-head of the University of the Arts Helsinki Collegium and Head of the University of the Arts Helsinki Professors’ Council. She was Vice Head of the MuTri Doctoral School and Research Unit. She is a member of the Doctoral training and Research division of Sibelius Academy´s Board and a member of the Academic Board of Sibelius Academy. She has been a member of the Steering group of the Centre for Artistic Research (CfAR) of Uniarts Helsinki. She has been involved in several EU projects and national and international organisations and collaborations as an educator, organiser, administrator, examiner, steering group member and advisor. Ilmonen has assessed applications for art, artistic research and academic positions as an external expert and jury member in Finland and various European countries. She served as a Womex Seven Samurai showcase jury member in 2009. She was the External Examiner of folk music programmes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland during 2010-2015. Ilmonen graduated as a Doctor of Music from the Arts Study Programme at the Sibelius Academy in 2014, researching shepherd music and its instruments in Finland and Karelia and adapting the musical heritage to enrich her contemporary expression. Ilmonen´s current research interests include artistic research, historically informed performance in folk music, Finno-Ugric shepherd music, improvisation, collaborative creativity, interdisciplinary creative work, historical Northern wind instruments, assessment in music education and folk music pedagogy. She has peer-reviewed artistic research expositions for JAR and Ruukku and co-edited a volume of the Finnish artistic research journal Ruukku. Ilmonen has initiated and organised the Finnish Folk Music Researchers´ Symposium since 2015 and founded the Journal of Finnish Folk Music Research Satasarvi in 2020. Ilmonen is writing and editing several publications about folk music research and pedagogy.

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