Saijaleena Rantanen works as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. She is a music historian and her research interests are in the social, political and cultural history of music. Her current research project examines the music culture of Finnish immigrants in the USA and Canada at the turn of the 20th century from three main viewpoints: 1) music as a leisure activity and as entertainment, 2) music as a livelihood (agencies, tours, professional musicians, breakthrough of the audio record industry etc.) and 3) music as a mediator of ideologies. She also has a history as a performer and a piano tuner.