Krishna Nagaraja Doctoral Defence ends with Bagpipe & Jouhikko Music

My good friend and doctoral colleague Krishna Nagaraja, has just finished an incredible research!
The defence of his doctoral project – Polska Travels: Composing (at) the Crossroads – has happened today. In the folk music department, there is a tradition to have doctoral candidates walk in and out of the public defence ceremony at the sound of fanfare.

I was honoured to be asked by Krishna to play the bagpipes. Also invited to play was the amazing Ilkka Heinonen – our good friend and colleague researching the Finnish Jouhikko.
Left completely to our own devices, to play what we saw fit, me and Ilkka decided for the unorthodox and sketchy route – we would play together both musical moments.
It would be, probably, the first time that Portuguese (Iberian) bagpipes and Finnish Jouhikko sounded… in the world.

We improvised on variations of two old Finnish folk tunes. The first we adapted to a more solemn march, and the second to sound like an Italian tarantella – a happier send-off for the Italian, soon-to-be, Doctor.
It was a scary semi-improvised moment that gave us a lot of enjoyment.
Hopefully Krishna, the professors and examiners, and the audience, also enjoyed it.

Many thanks and happy wishes, DR. Krishna Nagaraja!

Unfortunately, the camera did not capture both me and Ilkka (on the right of the stage), but here is a sound file of that day: