Finnish
Improvisation
Iki-Turso
Mordovia
Seto
Ingria
Karelia




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The MeNaiset singing ensemble was born in 1992 in Helsinki at the Department of Folk Music at the Sibelius Academy, where the members of the ensemble were studying at the time. All members have since graduated; some of them are still involved with the folk music department as they are doing their postgraduate studies, and some work there as teachers. (www2.siba.fi/kansanmusiikki)
The core of the MeNaiset music is mainly Finnish and other Finno-Ugric song culture, as well as different ways to use the human voice, the latter of which the members of the ensemble have learned straight from archive recordings and notes, and from folk singers. The goal of the ensemble is to get to know different traditions without, however, just copying these traditions but by putting them into practise through the members' own personalities. In most cases the songs are performed in the original language. MeNaiset has created several singing links between the Finnish people and the other Finno-Ugric peoples, the most notable of these being the link with the Mordovian ensemble Toorama (http://www.torama.ru/eng/) and the Seto choir Leelonaase (http://web.ibs.ee/ummamuudu/folk). The Ingrian song culture has also always been close to the MeNaiset members. The ensemble has also got acquainted with the Russian music in Karelia and the Bulgarian polyphonic singing, which MeNaiset has studied under the supervision of the Bulgarka Junior Quartet. The MeNaiset singers have done fieldwork in Mordovia, the Seto country, and Olonets and Dvina Karelia in Russia.
Apart from performing traditional folk music, the MeNaiset members also compose their own music and do their own arrangements. Vocal improvisation, too, as well as different border-crossing experimentations and breaking musical boundaries are of interest for the members. Some of the singers are involved in Voice Theatre Iki-Turso, where they mix the means of statement of music and theatre, thus finding new ways to perform traditional music, too. MeNaiset has co-operated with modern Finnish composers and jazz musicians. The ensemble has performed not only in Finland but also in different parts of Western Europe, the Baltic countries and Russia. MeNaiset gave out its first record, appropriately called MeNaiset, in 1995; the second record, called Mastorava, made in co-operation with the Mordovian Toorama ensemble, came out in 2001.