Hey there! ❤ Welcome to my website. Its purpose is to offer a little sneak peak to my working history in the fields of music and performing arts. The autumn is hitting the windows as I'm writing this, it feels cosy. 

I am a pianist, dancer, composer, songwriter, performer and multidisciplinary artist. I've been working in the fields of music and performing arts in Finland, France and Portugal. At the moment I'm living between Kuopio and Helsinki, in Finland. I feel at home in improvisation -based multidisciplinary practices where different ways of being and doing co-exist, interact, support and reach towards each other, in an ecological and sustainable manner.

In my 20's I was a music school drop-out living young artist's life in Paris, Lisbon and Almocageme, trying to achieve my dreams as an independent music maker while having fun. But eventually I got a huge artistic and existential crisis, stopped writing songs (for some stupid reason), stopped smoking and drinking, went vegan, went back to Finland and started teaching piano in the garden of an old mental hospital. Going back towards my second passion, contemporary dance and spending time in Finnish nature, slowly got me into a healthier path and helped to heal my relationship with music. 

After 10 years of working and investigating artistic processes in the margins, outside institutions, I went back to school and graduated as a contemporary dancer from Riveria Outokumpu in 2021, where I also had a chance to do some studies in photography and fine arts. I then deepened my choreographic thinking studying choreography at the Open University of the Theatre Academy in Helsinki during 2022-2023. Currently I am finalising a music pedagogy degree in Savonia University of Applied sciences. During 2024-2025 I studied as an exchange student at The Royal Academy of music in Aalborg, Denmark, where I focused in composition, songwriting and production.

For the past years I've been passionate about investigating how to choreograph every day life, in a healthy, sustainable and ecological manner. I've been also obsessed in observing, documenting and analysing artistic processes I've been part of. 10 years ago I started writing down these observations, and am slowly cleaning and organising them into more or less understandable form, most likely serving as a verbalised, sharable collection of some notes, excercises and observations on interdisciplinary art making. 

What feels essential for me at the moment as an artist and pedagogue is the curiosity of approaching the creative processes as a somatic practice that is interactively connected to the surrounding world. Practices like stopping, non-thinking, body-scanning, sensing, being with movement of the weight of the body, interaction with the surroundings, observing one's intentions and mindful action feel important in my current practice. In music the space/silence, physical touch of soundwaves, dramaturgies and textures found in nature are inspiring me at the moment. It is also important for my practice to regularly leave the buildings, close the screens and go outside to be and work in/with forests, lakesides, viewpoints and landscapes to nourish the continuous collaborative interaction with other forms of living and non-living matter. 

But also allowing oneself to not know, to imagine, to play, to forget, to brainstorm, to be stupid, to seek pleasure, to be hedonistic, to be worried,  to be anxious, to make mistakes, to be horny, to long for connection, to be playful, to watch reality-tv, to be incomplete and to let go of the idea of being perfect or perfectly aware of everything, feels important, to let go too obsessive observing and control, specially when dealing with creative processes.

I am currently preparing few new artistic outcomes with new aliases, after a decade of silent period of ripening, learning and cleaning my praxis. I'm working on a piano album and immersive concerts, much inspired by different states of water. I also recently got back to songwriting, working on an EP inspired by homoerotic encounters, urban nature and writing. In the fields of dance I am investigating ways to keep dancing with a too loose patella. I am also planning to continue a photo project investigating body in landscapes. Once I've found a new workspace, I can also start receiving students again.

Thank you for your time, I wish you all the best, take care! 

- Mikael

ps. Please ignore the random ads on this page, I'll get rid of them when I can

Contact:
mikael.joonatan at gmail

All rights reserved: Mikael Kuosmanen