Avolava - live music at the Hämeenlinna City Library

Avolava - live music at the Hämeenlinna City Library

Avolava (‘Open Stage’) is a concept developed at Hämeenlinna City Library (Finland). Avolava offers a platform to a diverse group of musicians, both professionals and amateurs, to perform at the library. Locality is important in choosing the performers, and we encourage young local talent to try live performance at Avolava. We also work in co-operation with local music academies and their students. The Avolava stage opened in November 2015 and so far the library has organized more than 40 live music concerts – solo performances, bands, choirs; classical, pop & rock, ethnic music, jazz, blues etc. Besides local musicians, we have had performers e.g. from Russia, Italy and England. Avolava-concept is an innovative answer to Jochumsen et al.’s four-space model of public libraries. It is an inspiration space (exciting for both performers and the audience), meeting space (different social groups, age groups and ethnic groups), learning space (exploring and listening to new music) and above all, performative space (creating new experiences). Avolava has opened up multidimensional dialogues between performers, audiences and library staff, thus paving way to the changing role of music in public libraries.