Research
Pauliina Syrjälä holds a doctoral degree in folk music and works as an artist-researcher. The music-making functions as a starting point for her research, with a particular interest in improvisation, oral tradition, variation, and composition, as well as in the kinds of knowledge that emerge through the practical work of a musician. In her artistic research, she seeks to bring into focus forms of experiential and embodied knowledge that are often difficult to articulate. Her work brings together experimental music-making and folk music traditions, which she understands as living practices that are continuously shaped in the present.
In her artistic doctoral research, completed in 2020 at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Syrjälä focused on the folk musician as a composing tradition-bearer and on improvisation as a method of composition. She has named her approach improcomposing through playing. The Saarijärvi kantele was the central research instrument. Her work combined archival research, which revealed the rich variety of historical playing styles associated with the Saarijärvi kantele, with instrument-based composition.
From 2024 to 2026, Syrjälä worked 50% on the research project Syvälle (Into the Deep) – A Folk Music Improvisation Laboratory, funded by the Kone Foundation. The researchers involved in the project form the Syvälle collective, which explores especially the old Baltic-Finnic folk music practices based on improvisation and variation. At the heart of the work are improvisation in different ensembles, playing from memory, micro-variation, and the musical process that emerges collectively.
The research is conducted through playing, improvising, composing, recording, and documenting, as well as through articulating and reflecting on observations that arise during the shared creative process. The project has also organised the Kohtaamisia Syvällä discussion series (2026) and a three-day improvisation laboratory at Pirunkirkko in Suomenlinna island, held as part of the University of the Arts Helsinki Research Pavilion (2025). Research articles initiated during the project are currently in progress and will be published in both Finnish and English in the coming years.
Syrjälä regularly presents her research at conferences and seminars in Finland and internationally. Her presentations most often take the form of lecture performances, in which playing an instrument is an integral part of the presentation.
She has given keynote presentations, among others, at the Beyond the Tune – Traditional Musicians Creating New Music symposium in Edinburgh, where she presented “The moment of composing is like a sea of freedom” – Improcomposing as a Folk Musician’s Creative Practice" (November 2024), and at the Nordic Summer Academy for Artistic Research (SAAR) in August 2026.
Syvälle collective: Kristiina Ilmonen (the head of the project), Anna-Kaisa Liedes, Pauliina Syrjälä, Timo Väänänen and Hanna Ryynänen. Photo by Sami Perttilä.