Monday 26 March 2018

Muntra Musikanter’s 140 year Anniversary Concert


The whole story begins two years ago when Christer Lindberg asked me if I would be interested in composing a new piece for the male choir Muntra Musikanter’s 140 year anniversary concert in 2018, which I of course was! My grandfather Göran Damström sang for a large part of his life in this very same choir, so it was an honour to be asked to compose for them. I asked the musical board if it would be possible to commission a new text for the piece, which they thought was a good idea, and I commissioned the Swedish speaking Finnish poet Oscar Rossi to write something for this purpose.


Just as with composition commissions, it is a lottery when you commission a new text and it was very existing to see what Oscar would come up with. And indeed: Oscar wrote something very different from anything I had read of him previously. But it worked out really well!
During the composition process I had regular contact with the conductor Henrik Wikström and checked with him in how many voices I could write and many similar questions. Henrik gave me very free hands which was nice.

In August 2017 I delivered the ready piece to the choir and in January 2018 I heard the first time a rehearsal of the piece. Two days before the premiere I heard a second rehearsal and what a big difference it was! But the best version of the piece (so far) was luckily the premiere itself, with which I was very happy!  Small things like the indication “weight on the front part of the foot, hit the ground with one heel at a time (quietly), according to the given rhythm”, which hadn’t sounded so great in rehearsals (when the choir was wearing sneakers or winder shoes) got just the sound I was looking for with the formal black shoes on stage. Many sang even by heart!



Muntra Musikanter 140th anniversary. Photo © Cata Portin


The choir Muntra Musikanter kept their 140 year anniversary in the Finlandia Hall for an audience of over 1000 people. Due to the anniversary, they also had an organised formal dinner party after the concert, which around 400 people attended. Most of the audience was dressed in evening gowns and suits, which made both the concert and dinner party very festive.

Me in my new evening gown at Muntra Musikanter's 140th anniversary concert.

The program was:
Ór Ymis hold (Finnish premiere) by Sunleif Rasmussen to a text from the Edda

Pauli Ord (world premiere) by me to a text by Oscar Rossi

Vem är du? by Andreas Lönnqvist to a text of Zacharias Topelius

Under rönn och syrén by Herman Palm to a text of Zacharias Topelius

Sandels by Jean Sibelius to a text of Johan Ludvig Runeberg

-intermission-

Sure On This Shining Night by Morten Lauridsen to a text of James Agee

MLK by U2 arranged by Hanna Kronqvist

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen arranged by Hanna Kronqvist

Hand i hand (world premiere) by Vytautas Miskinis to a text of Henry Parland

Dig är en törnkrans by Lille Bror Sönderlundh to a text of Gunnar Björling

Iltapilviä by Toivo Kuula to a text of V. A. Koskenniemi

Kejsarhymnen by Alexej Feodorovtij Lvoff to a text of Vasilij Zhukovskij

Gammalt porslin by Erik Bergman to a text by Carl Snoilsky

Sjöfararen vid milan by Selim Palmgren to a text of Gustaf Fröding


Muntra Musikanter 140th anniversary © Cecilia Damström


The choir was accompanied in a few songs by the eminent pianist Folke Gräsbeck. Gräsbeck has recorded all of Sibelius piano music, a total of 24 records, and he wrote his PhD dissertation about the music of Sibelius, so he was by far the most qualified choice for accompanying the choir when it came to Sibelius. The solos in the concert were sung by Adam Newman (in Pauli ord and MLK), Dennis Holmlund (MLK) and Janne Sandström (MLK and Hallelujah)


Muntra Musikanter 140th anniversary. Photo © Cata Portin
The concert was accompanied by a visual show made by the designer and visual artist Stefan Lindfors and his assistant. Lindfors used something as simple and fascinating as the “old school” over head projector, water and different elements that he combined with water. I also liked his overhead strategy of how he had planned the visual elements.


Stefan Lindfors at Muntra Musikanter 140th anniversary. Photo © Cata Portin
As the choir is a Swedish speaking choir, and the Swedish speaking minority (to which also my family belongs) of Finland is quite small, there were very many familiar faces in the audience, which was nice. I was very happy that my sister, both of my parents, my both grand mothers, and two of my aunts could attend. When I was young I thought that you would “grow out of it”, but it seems that I’m still like a 5-year old who is very happy when my family will come to my concerts. And my grandmother said she was sure that my grandfather Göran would have been very proud that I had composed a piece for “his” choir. I was also very happy that my friend Lucy McKnight and her friend could make it to the concert.
Me and my family after the concert

After the concert I was invited by the choir to join their anniversary dinner party. I want you to imagine: over 400 guests of which most sing or have sung in choirs their whole life, singing familiar drinking songs together in four voices! Yes, it DID sound amazing!

I had the honour of having the dinner company of the pianist Folke Gräsbeck and the conductor Henrik Wikström. Folke has been my piano teacher at music camps around 2001-2006, so I have know’n him for over half of my life. At the dinner I also got to meet the composer Sunleif Rasmussen from the Faero Islands and the actress Christina Indrenius-Zalewski, widow of Muntra Musikanter’s former conductor (1951-1978) and eminent composer Erik Bergman.


Photo together with actress Christina Indrenius-Zalewski

Photo together with composer Sunleif Rasmussen

After the dinner, a band was playing dance music and I had the opportunity to talk to a few more choir members, and I had a wonderful evening. And could there be a better way to round up the evening than by having an awesome review of the concert and my piece in today’s edition of the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet?
Thank you! (The flower I received from the choir)

Thursday 8 March 2018

Happy Women's Day!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Women's Day!
Very honoured by the fact that the first pieces by me that will be performed at the big Scandinavian venues such as the Finlandia Hall, Helsinki Music Centre (main hall), Stockholm Concert Hall, Turku Concert Hall and Linköping Concert & Congress Hall are all compositions for male choir! Many thanks to all the men who have taken the initiative to commission women like me to write new pieces for male choir, as the absence of repertoire in their choirs composed by women is striking! (One choral library of over 600 pieces for male choir contained only one piece composed by a woman, which makes about 0.17% of the library!) Thank you to the men who decided to make a change and for making the world more equal on this point.
Next performances: 24.3 Finlandia Hall (world premiere of "Pauli Ord" by Muntra Musikanter at their 140 year anniversary concert), 14.4 Helsinki Music Centre (Finnish premiere of "At Teasdale's" by Akademiska Sångföreningen at their 180 year anniversary concert) and 21.4 Stockholm Concert Hall (Orphei Drängar will sing "At Teasdale's" at their spring concert)! Welcome!
After the premiere of "Sailing to Windward" at Brahe Djäknar's 80 year
anniversary concert on the 13th of May 2017 at Turku Concert Hall.
Photo by Janne Valkeajoki

Wednesday 7 March 2018

My concerts 2018


My new webpage will soon be launched but until then I will list my upcoming concerts here on my blog. You are very welcome to listen!

7 February at 7 PM - Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, Germany
Shapes gets its German premiere, by Janne Valkeajoki

8 February at 1 PM - Helsinki Music Center
I will have my first public university lecture at the Sibelius Academy

2 March at 6 PM - St. Pauli Church, Malmö, Sweden
Shapes gets its Sweden premiere by Janne Valkeajoki in the same concert as Under Sjärnhimlen gets its Sweden premiere by Alvi Joensson.

3 March at 7 PM - Red room, Inter Arts Center, Malmö
The movements III.Tahto and IV.Muisto from my piano quintet Minna get their Sweden premiere by Fritiof Palm violin, Oscar Knutsson violin, Henrik Rapp viola, Oskar Palm Helmersson cello and Reetamaria Rajala piano.

24 March at 6 PM - Finlandia Hall, Helsinki
Pauli Ord for male choir will get it’s world premiere at the 140 year anniversary concert of the choir Sällskapet Muntra Musikanter. For more info please click here.

14 April at 6 PM - Helsinki Music Centre
At Teasdale’s will be performed at the male choir Akademiska Sångförening’s 180-year anniversary concert. For more info please click here.

21 April at 3 PM - Stockholm Concert Hall
At Teasdale’s will be performed at the male choir Orphei Drängar’s spring concert. For more info please click here.

22 April 3PM - Uppsala University, Sweden
At Teasdale’s will be performed at the male choir Orphei Drängar’s spring concert.

3 May at 6PM - Helsingborg Concert House, Sweden
My new piece Lucrum for Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra will get it’s world premiere. For more info please click here.

2 June at 3PM - Royal Swedish Academy of Music
My new piece Tundo for Gävle Symphony Orchestra will get it’s world premiere

8 of June at 7PM - Kokonainen Festival, Hämeenlinna, Finland
My new piano quintet Aino will get it’s world premiere at the amazing Kokonainen Festival. For more info please click here.

28 of June at 9PM - Urkuyö ja aaria - Espoo, Finland
My song cycle Tidens ordning will be performed by Nicholas Söderlund and Ilkka Paananen.




Looking forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming concerts! Photo by Marthe Veian Photo