Permafrost at the 70th International Rostrum of Composer

 Last week the live recording of my piece Permafrost, premiered by accordionist Sonja Vertainen and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jan Söderblom, was selected by the Finnish Broadcasting Company to represent Finland in the 70th International Rostrum of Composers, a.k.a. "Eurovision contest of contemporary classical music"! The recording of Permafrost was added to a selected list recommended for broadcasting and concert presentation!

The International Rostrum of Composers (IRC), organised by the International Music Council, is an international forum of representatives of broadcasting organisations who come together for the purpose of exchanging and broadcasting contemporary music. Currently, over 30 national radio networks participate in the Rostrum presenting some 60 works composed within the last five years. After the listening sessions, the assembly of delegates selects and recommends the most important works. The IRC continues today to be the most important platform for the promotion of contemporary music via radio broadcast.

I feel baffled and thankful! And endlessly thankful to everybody involved:  Thank you Raimo Vertainen on behalf of the Winter Accordion Festival and Marjukka Puutio on behalf of the Ostrobothnian Chamber orchestra for giving me this commission and opportunity to write this piece. Thank you Sonja Vertainen for being a wonderful supportive collaborator, ready to test all my ideas and ready to bring yourself to all limits for the sake of this concerto. Thank you to the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Jan Söderblom for scrupulously performing the piece together with Sonja. A big thank you to my music engraver Kari Vehmanen and to my publisher Gehrmans Musikförlag for making sure my scores are as clear as possible. Thank you to everyone at the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle who made an absolutely marvellous recording of my piece the live concert and thank you for believing in me and letting me represent Finland with this piece. And although the video projections couldn't be included at the IRC, I would anyway like to thank Irene Suosalo for being such a wonderful collaborator and for making an absolutely stunning video projection to “Permafrost” that was performed at the world premiere 16.2.2024!

Permafrost was radio broadcast again during the announcement of the Finnish representation for IRC, and is available online until 1st of June. The program also includes an interview in Finnish about Permafrost conducted by the wonderful Ainomaija Pennanen as well as one of my favourite orchestral pieces, Andrew Norman’s “Play”.

I’m so thankful for all the wonderful people that make all these wonderful things happen and equally thankful to everyone who has supported and believed in me throughout my composer journey so far. A heartfelt thank you!

Composer Cecilia Damström Photo by Jukka Lehojärvi for Keskipohjanmaa

Wasteland Finnish Premiere

Last week my 20 minute orchestra suite, my own “Rite of Spring” got its Finnish Premiere by the fantastic Tampere Philharmonic and Olari Elts in my beloved Tampere, where I studied and lived for almost a decade! Once again I have needed a whole week to recover from this wonderful and overwhelming experience. So happy I got to share the concert with so many friends and family! 

Cecilia Damström with Tampere Philharmonic and Olari Elts. Photo by Maarit Kytöharju for Tampere Biennale 2024.

Wasteland is a piece composed about how the recycling industry works a.k.a doesn’t work well enough yet. In this piece we follow the recycling process of three pieces of clothing from usage, to tossing, sorting, burning and handling of the ashes (and green washing). Obviously, in a piece about recycling I am recycling different pieces of music, representing a piece of clothing each, everything from Für Elise to the Magic Flute and from Catholic Mass Chant to Finnish pop artist Maija Vilkkumaa’s “Ei”.

So happy that the concert was reviewed by three different critics! As my aim is to make people think and feel through my music, I found the review by Aamulehti quite intriguing: It is simultaneously easily approachable and irritating music. 

Jari Kallio wrote for Adventures in Music following:

“The opening movement, Wear, comes off as hyperactive Academic Festival Overture, as Damström presents us with a hectic party montage, featuring orchestral costume changes at increasing speed. In the course of the two ensuing movements, Toss and Sort, used clothes are transferred to large sorting halls via an Andante orchestral transportation. At the end of the ride, the ensemble pans out with piled layers of repetition, mounting to vast tutti canvases and gazing upon the sheer mass of waste. Furioso furnaces are lit in Burn, conjuring up symphonic auto-da-fe par excellence. In the concluding Flow the orchestra sails down the river of greenwashing, rendering its final parody before vanishing beyond the horizon.

Conceived with meme-like wittiness and inventive instrumental craft, Wasteland is both fun and serious, its musical designs being both accessible and thought-provoking, without succumbing to fast fashion takes on the Berio Sinfonia (1968-69). Performed with dedication and zeal by the Tampere Philharmonic under Elts, Wasteland was given a powerhouse Finnish premiere.”  

If you want to make up your own opinion, the concert is available world wide for an other three weeks (until the 12th of May) on the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s website Yle Areena. My Wasteland begins at 17 min, although I warmly recommend listening to the whole concert including music by Kalevi Aho, a world premiere by Eetu Lehtonen and a fantastic virtuoso Piia Komsi singing music by Unsuk Chin!

Listen here!

Permafrost World Premiere

Last week was the busiest week of my 2024 so far, including a performance of “Fretus” with Hyvinkää Orchestra, travelling to Kokkola and back, giving two lectures and being part of one panel discussion about equality in music, one press conference, the world premiere of my accordion concerto “Permafrost” and participating as a nominee in the Emma Gala (equivalent to “The Grammys” in Finland) for the first time! Quite a week!

It has been such a pleasure to bring “Permafrost” to this world! I got to work together with virtuoso accordionist Sonja Vertainen already in the compositional phase, I got to work with the amazing video artist Irene Suosalo in the past two month and last week got to work with the wonderful Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Jan Söderblom leading up to a superb premiere, which can be heard online on demand on Yle Areena until the 17th of March! It was wonderful to share such a large part of the journey with Sonja and Irene, finding people with whom you work easely closely together with, is a rare and valuable gift!

And what a reception and review Permafrost got! Anni Saari wrote in Keskipohjanmaa yesterday:

Top-notch at Kokkola Winter Accordion – “Permafrost” is a Supreme Masterpiece with Sonja Vertainen Shining as Soloist. The composition commissioned from Cecilia Damström by Kokkola Winter Accordion and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra stands out as a remarkable achievement from the composer.

Damström exhibits a remarkable command in handling the orchestra and exploring its sonic capabilities. At times, she seamlessly integrates the accordion into the string section, requiring meticulous focus to discern the origins of the sound. Naturally, the composition also allocates distinct solo segments for the accordion. In the second movement, Damström demonstrates the artistry of how a top-tier composer uses extended playing techniques: a tap of the wood side of the bow on the strings evokes imagery of a drop falling or a bubble bursting. The accordion has serene, heartrendingly beautiful, simple melodies in the tranquil second movement, melodies that one could listen to endlessly. And what an ending Damström presented!

Permafrost stands as a truly exquisite and masterful creation, impeccably crafted with no superfluous elements. Its accessibility is remarkable; making it a true pleasure to listen to. I dare say, it’s a musical gem that is bound to grace many stages in the years to come. The commission by Kokkola Winter Accordion and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra is an unsurpassed success!

The next morning after the premiere I headed straight back to Helsinki to the Emma Gala where Ville Hautakanga’s masterpiece album “12 Premieres” was nominated for the award “Classical Emma of the Year”. Was such a pleasure to be part of the gala and the afterparty! Congratulations to the Classical Emma Winner, the album Reconnaissance – Kaija Saariaho: Choral Music by Helsinki Chamber Choir & Nils Schweckendiek !

This week: time for Linda Suolahti’s Album Release Concert on Saturday at 6pm, including music by Leiviskä, Hannikainen and yours truly! Welcome! And next week my ICE will be performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon! Welcome there as well!

Composer Cecilia Damström Photo by Jukka Lehojärvi for Keskipohjanmaa

Extinctions World Premiere

 It’s one week since the premiere of my “Extinctions” and I'm slowly recovering from this overwhelming experience. What a journey it has been! Four years ago, in the beginning of 2020 I received an email from Tuula Sarotie that the new chief conductor Nicholas Collon would like to commission a new work from me, and since then this piece has been growing inside me. I wanted to write a piece in one movement, and building a 22 minute arch was a new and wonderfully challenging experience. In composing it is possible to keep constantly evolving and trying out new things, and this is both the best about my job and at the same thing very nerve wracking, and you never know how it will work out. For instance, 5 days before the premiere I was changing some of the parts, because I had been slightly optimistic about how fast it would be possible to play, but we agreed with the musicians in question on 16-notes per second. The two rehearsals went very well and it was such a pleasure to get to work with both the wonderful Chloé Dufresne as well as the magnificent Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. I am so happy with everything!! This was also the first time a professional orchestra performed my music for a live audience in my hometown, so it was so nice to be able to share this moment with so many friends and family members and all the 1693 audience members in the hall (in addition to everyone who watched online).

Composer Cecilia Damström, Conductor Chloé Dufresne, Pianist Alexander Malofejev 26.1.2024

I was also so happy and honoured by all the wonderful reviews my new piece received!

“Damström has created a fascinating score, full of exciting sounds, captivating colors, and evocative orchestral effects. "Extinctions" represents Damström at her most modernist, simultaneously maintaining a highly expressive approach that is by no means devoid of dramatic pauses or tonal landmarks. The lion's share consists, in fact, of meditatively charged, almost mysteriously vibrating, and quietly probing passages, lending the few discharges all the more effective relief. This is a relatively rare case of imaginative tonal painting in domestic contexts, emphasizing the stark but dramatically resilient rather than the sensually inviting.” wrote Mats Liljeroos, Hufvudstadsbladet 28.1.2024

“Damström's music is like a spontaneously ignited and rich soundscape of life. If her Teosto Award-winning composition "ICE" in 2022 reflects the ethereal soundscape of icebergs, "Extinctions" is characterized by the earth's resonant rumble.

The composition cleverly utilizes different instrumental groups and colors in depicting evolution, from dense strings in the forest to the clarinets' erratic frogs and the Jurassic brass. Pressure waves and dust clouds come to life in the percussion section.

The music is colorful and visual but never merely illustrative. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra executed the piece excellently under the confident direction of Chloé Dufresne.” wrote Nuppu Koivisto in Helsingin Sanomat 28.1.2024

And Jari Kallio wrote in “Adventures in Music” following: “A gorgeous rendition from the orchestra and Dufresne, Extinctions was given a flying start upon its premiere. Regarding the overall organic form, Damström’s orchestral designs bear some family relationships with those by Anna Thorvaldsdottir – without imitation – whereas her way of leading each instrument their own sonic narratives is something quite unique. Figurative without resorting to mere Mickey Mousing, Damström’s scoring serves as story-teller par excellence, as resoundingly demonstrated by the inspired accounts of the FRSO players. Shaped and balanced with keen attention and organic sensitivity by Dufresne, Extinctions was received with rousing enthusiasm by the sold-out hall.”

Thank You once again to everyone who came and listened! And for anyone who still wants to hear it, you can find the concert including a live interview and the premiere, here:

https://areena.yle.fi/1-67584262

Composer Cecilia Damström and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra 26.1.2024