Pekka Toivanen and Corwen Broch at the 3rd Nordic Harp Meeting in Gjøvik, 2010. (Photo: Floris van der Meijs)

Pekka Toivanen is lecturer and researcher of music at the University of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. He made his PhD on ancient Welsh string music (‘Cerdd Dant’) described in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, the oldest European collection of harp music pieces from the repertoire of medieval Welsh bards.

At the Nordic Harp Meeting 2010, he gave a workshop about the Early Harper’s Toolkit, based on ornamentation styles in the Robert ap Huw manuscript, the concepts and their meaning and how to execute them. Pekka gave also a lecture about the Ob-Ugrian harp, its practices and its use in connection with the Khanty bear ritual in western Siberia.

Pekka Toivanen was chief organiser of the Nordic Harp Meeting 2012 in Jyväskylä. He and his medieval group “Yr Awen” gave a lecture+concert about Recontextualising medieval music, with Cantigas de Amigo as a case example. (Read more about the lecture)