Nina Kristine Linge

Q: What are the most fulfilling and most challenging aspects of your job?

INFI (International Network for Female instrumentalists) has since 2006 worked to recruit- and promote gender equality for female instrumentalists on a global scale through planning and carrying out musical projects based on music’s intrinsic value, while acknowledging its added value throughout development work, diversity work and internationalization work that serves musicians, the music industry, and society in general. INFI has musical development and presentation, experience, equality, exchange and collaboration across social and cultural boundaries as our central focus.

The most challenging but also fulfilling aspects of the job are that INFI's strategies and actions operate on the borderland between culture and politics.

Our main vision is to contribute to building a more compassionate, humane, and peaceful world by thinking globally, acting collectively, and including women in a world where women have been systematically suppressed throughout history. If we ponder culturally neglected areas today, we will find that gender rolls are still strictly adhered to.

Undertaking projects in different cultural contexts can reveal lots of similarities, but also large differences in sociocultural norms, power asymmetries, values and ethics. Managing these differences can be challenging, and one is often required to make decisions and judgements in complex situations, for which there are typically no simple solutions, and where we may have limited understanding of the socio-cultural and political environment.

We aim to navigate ​​historical racial and gender issues with respect for different cultural traditions even while cultures have different standards of ethical behavior — and different ways of handling unethical behavior.

In 2009, INFI received a commitment from MMINO - which is an application-based music program within music education and music exchange between the Embassy in Pretoria (South Africa), the National Arts Council and National Concerts. We invited 3 young female jazz performers and a teacher from South Africa to the jazz camp with a closing concert at Molde Jazz Festival in 2009. Later we collaborated to establish a similar jazz camp for women in the township Mamelodi outside Johannesburg in December 2009.

I was the one who wrote the application and initiated the exchange, and was responsible for the entire project both administratively and financially, as well as the purchase of office equipment and instruments in South Africa. Ellen Brekken (bass), Maren Selvaag (piano), and Matilda Rolfsson (drums) were co-responsible for the teaching part, arrangement, schedule and daily setup. Daisy Mangwato, Anna Sbongile Buda and Sphiwe Masilela had local responsibility for board, lodging, transport, participant registration and concert booking in South Africa.

Since then, we have tried to assimilate each INFI project into the respective country and culture, and the social conditions and resources that underlie the international cooperation. We use music in the development arena with a focus on women, enabling the organization to offer a new, creative and important contribution to the global community.

In recent years, as the world has emerged from the painful experiences of colonialism, genocide, and superpower tensions, the nascent structures of an international humanism have appeared.

INFI recruits and inspire more girls to become instrumentalists within the rhythmic music field. INFI has arranged summer jazz camps in Scandinavia for girls with participants and teachers from all over the world, and played at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Aarhus Jazz Festival and Molde International Jazz Festival with 27 female instrumentalists and artist in residence and percussion legend Marilyn Mazur on stage.

The most fulfilling and also most challenging aspect of the job was to navigate with a small semi-idealistic organization on a global scale and plan, communicate and carry out projects in different corners of the world.

INFI's strategies and actions operate on the borderland between culture and politics, with musical development, experience, equality, exchange and collaboration across social and cultural boundaries as a central focus. Each INFI project is adapted to the country and culture in question, and the conditions and resources that underlie our international cooperation. By using music as the development arena for other areas of society with a focus on women, the organization represented at that time a new, creative and important contribution to the global community.

In a world where people and cultures are increasingly connected and, as a result, face new social challenges, it is more important than ever that global organisations recognise and embrace their social responsibility.

Creative sectors, particularly music, tend to rely less on sophisticated infrastructure or capital-intensive investment. Potential is particularly abundant in Africa, where musical creativity is rich, diverse, well-loved, and constantly evolving while drawing on strong traditions. The development of a popular music industry thus represents low-hanging fruit for most African economies.

INFI is a Norwegian organization started and run by Norwegian organizers. INFI promotes female instrumentalists through planning, communicating, and conducting music projects on a global scale. The administration and operations have roots in Norway, and cooperation with Norway and Norwegian authorities are therefore a natural part of the organization's work.

The INFI Camp engages professional female performing musicians / educators who work as teachers and fellow musicians. It inspires and offers lectures and workshops, interaction and improvisation training with the participants. Every year, INFI collaborates with a jazz festival, and a large part of the camp activity revolves around working with the head teacher's own music and events that are finally performed by INFI's participants, partly together with the head teachers, during the current festival. There will also be a jam and an announced house concert at the school during the camp.

The most fulfilling aspect for me was our collaboration with MMINO (a fund that provides support for education and exchanges between Norway and South Africa). This was in 2009, with a visit to the summer camp in Norway of three South African participants from Mamelodi township and a teacher from Cape Town. Furthermore arranged INFI, in cooperation with its South African friends, camp in Mamelodi township with a final concert in Mortar Park, Mamelodi SOS Children’s Village jazz club and 51 in Pretoria, from 24 December 24th, 2009 to January 2, 2010. The project was voluntary, and all funds were used to purchase equipment and instruments for INFI Mamelodi, so that they could continue their activities in the following years. INFI/JCFK Mamelodi give young musicians and organizers the opportunity to work with music and culture in a vastly different environment than their own, and thereby exchange competences, experiences and ideas.

Participants at INFI camp have been aged 15 years and up. Most of these girls have only played for themselves alone while going to their weekly hour of music lessons. Many do not come in contact with anyone to play with. At INFI camp they get their first experience of playing in a band, they meet role models they can identify with and gain insight on the road of becoming a professional female instrumentalist. INFI has created a unique network that reaches far beyond the duration of one week of camp. Affirmative action promotes equality, and this camp is an appropriate recruitment initiative that inspires and motivates young girls.

Maren Selvaag, Nina Kristine Linge and Frøy Aagre have extensive personal experience to share concerning the road to becoming a professional performer. INFI camp has great experience in meeting young women eager to learn about improvisation and instrumental music. With this capacity, INFI still exists to be a key player in working to achieve a better gender balance and to be involved in the political discussion on measures to achieve this.

Q: Please describe some examples (things you have personally witnessed) that show how music can contribute to civic engagement among young people. For instance, how through music do young people become more involved in improving their community, or more socially engaged and politically active, or concerned about global challenges?

Music projects tend to change any group’s dynamic, since through music-making you get to know each other better and work towards a common goal. Music thereby has a positive effect on people in general. Music can also become a kind of democratic platform where people can really meet and gather together, to transcend any kind of background or social or cultural boundaries, at least to some degree. It can also be a neutral platform in some ways. Through music you also learn to listen to each other, come up with initiatives, know when best to be quiet and when to add something, getting a balance between taking initiatives and cooperating with what others add, providing good skill development that goes beyond music. You learn to sound so much better through cooperating well with others.

Q: Please describe examples from conversations among young people (things you have personally observed) that show some of the different ways they discuss music.

For young people, music has a lot to do with identities, I have noticed, and they can have very strong opinions which can become quite personal. For young people, some are even afraid to say they like something since you can hurt people simply by sharing what kind of music you listen to. It even relates to how they dress, that they listen to certain kinds of music. Music is about emotional things, which express so much, and it causes inspiration, comfort, and motivation for young people.

Q: Based on what you have seen, how do such conversations change as young people mature (for instance, ages 15-17; 18-20; 21-25)?

It seems like for young people music is a deeper part of their life and culture and time, with the lyrics expressing important things, an especially large part of their culture when they are younger, with a whole identity and way of life connected to the music. Maybe as they get older, then they are able to listen to more kinds of music. Some tend to listen to less melancholic music as they get older, and may need more uplifting music.

Q: Based on your experience, have discussions of music and society among young people generally changed over the years due to different historical conditions? If so, how and why?

It is hard to say since I think I have also changed a lot, and I am not completely sure how young people generally have changed. Young people seem more aware of a lot of other issues going on in the world, with a lot of activism in music, but maybe that has always been the case. Music has always been about pushing boundaries and being who you are, for example when it comes to issues of racism or acceptance of homosexuality. Music has always been on the borders of a revolution in some ways. It seems like most musicians today are aware of their social and political responsibility, but maybe they always have been to some extent. Young people expect musicians to take a stand about what is happening in the world. Music is an arena for taking a stand against injustice. Musicians have a big audience and a strong voice.

Q: Do you sense that a shared knowledge of traditional (folk) songs and dances is changing among young people, and if so, how and why?

To be honest, I was not raised with traditional Norwegian folk songs as part of my cultural identity. I did not grow up with my mother or grandmother singing songs from long ago. But I always loved the style and microtonality. But it was not what I was exposed to much. I think this has been the situation for a long time, but I am happy there is Ole Bull Academy and other places that teach these music traditions in Norway.

Q: What is the most interesting story you can share about how music impacts young people?

One participant in our jazz course was a young aspiring drummer. She had a chance to play with Marilyn Mazur, who was a guest artist at the Molde jazz festival. It was a really intense experience for her with a call and response drum solo, which was really an inspiration and a turning point toward pursuing a career in music. Now she is getting a doctoral degree in music and has really established her own career. Also, I think of when we toured in India with an all-girls ensemble and had many concerts around Kalkutta at lots of schools. For girls to see us without needing any men, traveling by ourselves, it was really an eye-opener at that time for them. Simply by doing something like that we were really sending an important signal. Then, when we had this exchange project with South Africa, they were inspired and have kept doing it now for over ten years. They kept having music camps each year for South African young girls, so it seems to have given them something. It is hard to tell how much lives are changed sometimes, but it is clear that many of these projects are having an impact on at least some of the participants.

Q: In what ways do you see social media impacting how young people use and communicate about music?

Obviously you see during Corona [the Covid-19 pandemic] that people are having virtual play dates and concerts much more, and posting and keeping others updated through social media, but that is just a general trend. It almost seems like you don’t need anyone else now with all the digital tools and social media. They can reach out with their own music and produce and create on a different level than before, in ways that are much more accessible.

Q: What kinds of discussions have you witnessed stimulated through instrumental music? Can you imagine some new ways this could be achieved?

We had a jazz camp for only female instrumentalists since there was a need for that. There is still a gender division even in Norway when it comes to what kind of instruments people play. There are different approaches to listening with instrumental versus vocal music, as well. I think it actually affects different parts of the brain. You can still have different reactions and emotions through music without lyrics. But voice and instruments can go hand in hand, supporting each other, since you become a better vocalist by playing an instrument and vice versa.

Q: What kind of new methods in work with young people would be helpful in your work? What should be the purpose of these methods?

I want to make my contribution so that we can offer a future-oriented music education with a clear profile that is perceived as relevant and representative. A well-established music education with a visible music life, also promotes community and inclusion and contributes to joy, good mental health, and meaningful experiences - not only in higher education and the students' future workplace - but in society in general. We must not forget that music also has a mission to make society better. To help develop good conditions for creating, learning and teaching music, as well as good conditions for meeting and connecting true music gatherings is a position that engages me. I am passionate about music and culture as a vital activity in society, also in a socio-cultural perspective through varied and diverse musical and cultural social interaction as a medium of communication to interpret the world and reduce polarization, and strengthen equality and democracy. These are important themes that are also repeated in my own projects and work as a musician.

July 2021