Wif Stenger

Finland, Helsinki

Journalist at Yle.fi

writer, listener

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Articles

April Jazz, Espoo, Finland

1 week ago | jazzjournal.co.uk | Wif Stenger

New York alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin charged right out of the gate with her “warmup tune” Trane – which was even more hair-raising than the version on last year’s Grammy-shortlisted Phoenix Reimagined live album. She’s on a tour named after the live album, and repeated much of it, even beginning her set with the same introduction, word-for-word. Still, this show never felt rote or routine.
Review | Songlines

1 month ago | songlines.co.uk | Wif Stenger

Rating: ★★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: Frigg Label: Bafe’s Factory May/2025 After 25 years of travelling the world, fiddle juggernaut Frigg rolls like a well-oiled machine – albeit with a few surprises.
Review | Songlines

1 month ago | songlines.co.uk | Wif Stenger

Rating: ★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: Uusikuu Label: Nordic Notes May/2025 Uusikuu could just be the house band at the cosy local tavern of your dreams, with warm, relaxed vocals backed by accordion and fiddle, playing beloved standards and originals that sound like they should be standards. Two Finnish expats started the band near Stuttgart almost 20 years ago.
Business lobby: Finland must stick to climate target to ensure economic growth

1 month ago | yle.fi | Wif Stenger

In recent months, Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns) and several agricultural and transport groups have criticised Finland's legally mandated commitment to seek carbon neutrality within the next decade. Now the country's biggest business group, the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) has pushed back on calls for a looser climate policy. The EK reconfirmed its commitment to the 2035 target, suggesting that it is crucial to marketing Finnish firms' cleantech offerings abroad.
Review | Songlines

1 month ago | songlines.co.uk | Wif Stenger

Rating: ★★★★ View album and artist details Artist/band: Ánnámáret Label: Uksi Productions April/2025 The Indigenous Sámi tradition of joik chanting thrives in many styles across the Sápmi region of northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, including wordless improvisation somewhere between yodelling, ululation and scat singing. Contemporary Sámi musicians have fused joik with genres from pop and rock to hip-hop and electronics.
New dimensions in saxophone

Nov 7, 2024 | fmq.fi | Wif Stenger

in Reviews Finnish saxophonists are creating vivid music that leaps over fences between jazz, experimental and classical, as evidenced by four recent albums. When someone says ‘jazz,’ do you think of a saxophone? It’s the instrument most associated with the genre, and rarely prominent elsewhere, though composers from Claude Debussy to Kalevi Aho and Esa-Pekka Salonen have written concertos for it.
Guevara: “We need flexibility in adult education policy, not rigid structures”

Nov 1, 2024 | elmmagazine.eu | Katriina Palo-Närhinen |Wif Stenger

“Given the diverse nature of post-schooling education, we need flexibility in adult education policy, not rigid structures,” argues Robbie Guevara, President of International Council for Adult Education and Associate Professor at RMIT University in Melbourne.
Uwe Gartenschlaeger: Adult education is essential to tackle societal challenges

Oct 4, 2024 | elmmagazine.eu | Katriina Palo-Närhinen |Wif Stenger

“If we want to live in peace and democracy, if we want to give everybody a fair chance not to be left behind, we need lifelong learning and adult learning,” says Uwe Gartenschlaeger, President of the EAEA. EAEA President Uwe Gartenschlaeger has a strong message to practitioners in adult learning and education: you’re essential. Adult educators face a lot of challenges around the world – and so do their societies.
Krishna Nagaraja: Finding a home amid polskas, baroque and metal rhythms

Sep 19, 2024 | fmq.fi | Wif Stenger

“I tend to connect people. Because I play the viola, that gives me this status as connector in an orchestra. I have to listen to both sides of the story, the bass and the treble,” says musician and composer Krishna Nagaraja. This role as a connector is not restricted to an orchestral context, though. Nagaraja recognises it in various settings – across styles and genres.
Flow Festival 2024, Helsinki

Aug 19, 2024 | jazzjournal.co.uk | Wif Stenger

Jazz has been part of the multi-genre Flow Festival’s DNA since it was launched in 2004, featuring memorable shows by the likes of Pharoah Sanders, Brandee Younger, Kamasi Washington and Roy Ayers. The festival and the groovy Five Corners Quintet – both splicing retro and future sounds – were started around the same time by Tuomas Kallio, who remains at the festival’s helm. The band recorded with Mark Murphy and backed him at the second Flow before its members went off to active solo careers.