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

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

April adventures

What a wonderfully crazy week it has been! Went to Stockholm for two nights and held a guest lecture for the composition department of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm on Friday afternoon and attended TampereRaw’s concert at Konserthuset Stockholm in the evening, including an amazing performance of my Piano Quintet "Minna - Pictures from the Life of Minna Canth".

TampereRaw at Stockholm Concert Hall. Photo © Ville Hautakangas

Pianist Ville Hautakangas, composer Cecilia Damström,
violinist Anna Angervo and cellistMaija Juuti at Stockholm Concert Hall.

Stockholm Concert Hall by night. Photo © C.Damström

Bassist Juha Kleemola, Anna Angervo and Cecilia Damström in Stockholm.

Cecilia Damström infant of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm 21.4.2023.

Hautakangas, Damström, Angervo, Juuti and Tatevik Ayazyan

After the concert and a wonderful 2,5h sleep I headed straight to the Finnish National Accordion Competition “Minä soitan harmonikkaa…” where the different movements from my new suite “Renewables” were the obligetory pieces for ages 10-16. Got to hear some of the players aged 10-13, and was absolutely amazed by the high standard of performing in the competition and so many wonderful interpretations of my “Renewables”.

Cecilia Damström at "Minä soitan harmonikkaa..." accordion competition 22.4.2023

Had 2 hours at home to change into evening gown and headed to the 185th anniversary of Akademiska Sångföreningen at Musiikkitalo, where they performed an absolutely mind-blowing version of my “Sailing to Windward” (composed to a poem by my grandmother's cousin Michael Binnie). This was followed by a dinner party with a lot of singing in four part harmony.

Choral conductor Kari Turunen and composer Cecilia Damström at the 185th anniversary concert of Akademen Male Voice Choir in Helsinki 22.4.2023

And a refreshing 3,5 hour sleep later I was back listening to “Renewables” at the Accordion competition at 9 AM. From there I headed by bus to Turku, where I listened to the finals of the Pirkanmaa Pinna Composition Competition, in which I had the honour to be part of the jury.

Cecilia Damström 23.4.2023

Many congratslations to the winning work “The Fiddler's Quest” by Benny Ojala and the shared second prize winners Laraine Kaizer-Viazovtsev: Ajam Suomessa, Tomi Räisänen: Kalalle and Robert Ruohola: Hangen värit.

With this timetable I sadly missed the performance by Vaasa City Orchestra and Seinäjoki City Orchestra, who played my Infirmus in Seinäjoki and Vaasa, conducted by Henri Sigfridsson. The performance was apparently splendid as the reviews were raving in both newspapers:

“Cecilia Damström's eerie string orchestra work Infirmus delivered the listeners to a completely different world. The work is dedicated to those who suffer from severe pain caused by an incurable disease. The work cuts, throbs, grabs, hits, oppresses. The world of endless pain has transcribed to the form of music in a really impressive way. An absolutely wonderful, breath taking and merciless piece, which was brilliantly played by the string orchestra.”

Hanne Orrenmaa, Ilkka-PohjalainenSaturday 22nd of April 2023

and

“Cecilia Damström (b.1988) is a fantastic composer. Her work Infirmus from 2015 lacks melodic motifs, instead she exploits the string instrument's ability to create atmospheres. The title means illness or weakness and the listener is given the opportunity for their own personal interpretation. I just closed my eyes and could experience images like pain, worry, hopelessness, hope, aggressiveness...

The work is excellent proof of music's ability to evoke thoughts and feelings.”

Per-Håkan Jansson, Vasabladet Sunday the 23rd of April 2023

This week’s Thursday I had the honour of being the head of the jury for Teosto Award and hand out the award alongside my amazing colleagues Yona, Linda Fredriksson, Gita Kadambi and Miikka Maunula. Big congratulations to this years Teosto Award Winners: the orchestral work “Water” composed by Sanna Ahvenjärvi and Tapio Lappalainen, Mikko Sarvanne Garden's jazz album “Heräämisen valkea myrsky” composed by Mikko Sarvanne and the rap album “Draama-Helmi kuistilla” by Helmi Kajaste and her work group. It was an amazing experience to get to listen to music from so many different genres and talk about it with my colleague jury members, all experts from many genres.

Teosto Award Jury 2023. Photo by Jussi Hilttunen

Ending this week by attending my friends wedding and celebrating Vappu (Finnish first of May) with a friend visiting from the US. Wishing you all a wonderful Vappu!

Thanksgiving

First of advent and the weekend of thanksgiving and so many things in the past weeks that I’m thankful of that I don’t really know how to sum it up or where to begin! (Trigger warning: a long post of thankfulness and blessings.)

Thank you Lili Bogdanova-Essl and Michael Essl for wonderful three days in Berlin, one of my favourite cities in the world. Was also a great honour to be included in this year’s Klangwerkstatt Berlin on the 10th of November with my piece Groove, performed by Marianna Schürmann and Christine Paté alongside music by my colleagues Juha T. Koskinen and Tapio Tuomela. And so good to see my uni friend Simiam Ghan again and my colleague Cia Rinne, whom I’m currently working together with, as well!

Marianna Schürmann, Christine Paté and Cecilia Damström at Klangwerstatt Berlin 2022

Concert Location in Kreuzberg for Klangwerkstatt Berlin 2022

Cecilia Damström and poet Cia Rinne on the 11.11.22 in Berlin

Had three wonderful days in New York, the city that never sleeps and had a great meeting with Elizabeth Blaufox from Boosey & Hawkes (the publisher who represents me in the US and UK). Also stayed in a charity based hostel, through which I got to hand out food to homeless people in New York. Got to see the composition recital of the students at the Juilliard School and bumped into professor Andrew Norman, one of my favourite composers. Saw the superb musical “Into the Woods”, a musical who's musical director and pianist is my friend Evan Rees, with whom I studied together composition for Samuel Adler in 2012 in Berlin! At the same course I met Evan in 2012, I also met the wonderful Elizabeth Nonemaker, with whom we managed to squeeze in a lunch in New York this November, reunited with this wonderful person after 10 years! Also made new friends, for instance Jackie at the hostel, with whom I had a meaningful 3 hour conversation in Spanish about life and spirituality. (I’m quite proud this is still possible 11 years after my Erasmus exchange to Spain.)

Cecilia Damström with Elizabeth Blaufox at Boosey & Hawkes in November 2022

Went by train to Washington DC, where Garrick Zoeter picked me up. This inspiring and wonderful clarinettist was more than the best imaginable host! He showed me around Washington DC (The Capitol, The Whitehouse and the Kennedy Music Centre), drove me to Winchester Virgina, brought me to dinner together with his colleagues each night and drove me even to the magnificent Lurey Caverns on my free day, where I got to see spectacular 400 million year old caves of stalactites and stalagmites! (Also: the hotel that the Shenandoah Conservatory put me in was so comfortable, I think even the bathroom was three times bigger than the cubicle “room” I had in New York!). 

Cecilia Damström at the Capitol in Washington DC in November 2022

Cecilia Damström at the Lurey caves 17th of November 2022

Cecilia Damström lecturing at Shenandoah Conservatory 18th of November 2022

I was given the opportunity to talk about my music to the composition class of Jonathan Newman at the Shenandoah Conservatory and share my music with them. On Friday evening the 18th of November my main reason for my US travel took place: Garrick and his wonderful colleagues Julietta Curenton, Stephen Key, Ryan Romine and Alexander Bernstein gave an absolutely splendid US Premiere of Piano Quintet No.3: Helene - Nuances from the Life of Helene Schjerfbeck. (Listen to it yourself, link above to the recording!)

Cecilia Damström and the Van Buren Quintet 2022

The weekend I got to spend with my dear friend, composer Lucy McKnight at her wonderful home. I got to attend one of her concerts at Princeton University, see the legendary grounds of famous university and meet her wonderful friends Kennedy Dixon, James Moore, Connor Elias Way and many more, as well as her lovely cats.

Kennedy and Lucy outside Princeton University November 20th 2022

After a refreshing 22hours at home in Helsinki I was lucky to travel on the 23rd of November to the small city of Jakobstad (in Finland) for the wonderful Rusk Festival. This year’s theme was “Gods and goddesses”, so my piece Celestial beings suited the festival so well, that the opening concert was even named after my piece! It was such a honour to have Aleksander Koelbel and Mina Fred from the superb contemporary music ensemble Norrbotten NEO perform my piece! (Link to the recording of the opening concert in the comments!) And because they played the third movement in the opening concert and the other two movements in the chamber music concert on Friday, I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at the festival from Wednesday to Saturday and had the opportunity to get to know all the other wonderful musicians as well as hear and experience all the inspiring concerts artistic director Anna-Maria Helsing hat put together. Thank you Mina, Aleksander, Nick Shugaev, Mårten Landström , Johan Ullén, Robert Ek, Christian Svarfvar, Senja Rummukainen, Anabel Montesinos, Sara Hammarström, Tanja Nisonen, Martin Granström and everyone involved for a truly wonderful week in Jakobstad!

Mina Fred, Cecilia Damström and Aleksander Koelbel at the RUSK Festival in Finland 2022

Ended the week together with my friend Linda Suolahti, seeing my favourite comedian Hannah Gadsby perform live in Helsinki. Such a mind-blowing performance!

The past 2,5 years haven’t always been easy, having suffered from Long Covid from March 2020 until September 2022 (and having had cover five times so far). Many times during the past years I have wondered if I ever would be back to normal again, so it feels simply incredible to finally feel like I have got my life back! Each of the things I have mentioned feel like a blessing, but the biggest blessing of all at the moment is having a heathy body to experience all the things above and of course all the lovely people with whom I have had the privilege to experience these moments with. Thank you.

November Concerts

November is here with a sparkling variety of concerts and me trying to keep up with them! 😅  This month my music is traveling to Germany, Canada, USA and different cities in Finland. 

November began with a pang: an excerpt of my string orchestra piece Fretus was performed during the Nordic Council Prize Ceremony. The event was streamed live to all Nordic Countries and can be seen online under this link. The exerpt of Fretus, a piece dedicated to all the oceans of our world, is performed before and after announcing the winner of the Nordic Council Enviroment Prize.

4th of November: The second movement Rädda mig from my choral suite Min Gud composed to Psalm 22 will get it's Canadian premiere by the Vancouver Chamber Choir conducted by the genious Kari Turunen. The piece Min Gud composed in 2010 is a very important work for me, and quotes from this work can be heard in several of my later works, so I'm very thankful for this performance.

10th of November: my playful duo Groove for flute and accordion is getting its German premiere at Klangwerkstatt Berlin Festival für Neue Musik. Groove is a piece which combines a fusion of jazz, progressive rock, latino rhythms and contemporary music elements and I can't wait to hear it again!

17th of November: Very happy about the Danish premiere of my piano solo pieces Characters and Under Stjärnhimlen, performed by the magnificent Xenia Frederiksen at Viborg Musikforening in Viborg Musiksal. You can find more information about the event here and find tickets here.

18th of November: Very happy that my music is returning to the United States and an other US premiere, with nothing less than my 20 minute Piano Quintet Helene - Nuances from the Life of Helene Schjerfbeck , inspired by paintings and the life of the most famous Finnish modernist painter Helene Schjerfbeck.

23rd of November: The third movement Athena from my duo Celestial Beings will be performed at the opening concert of the RUSK festival in Jakobstad, Finland.  Link to the festival’s program here.

25th “Aphrodite” and “Persephone”from “Celestial Beings” will be performed at RUSK at the concert ”Souls of Ill Repute” at 6PM

28th of November: My piano solo piece Epitaph will be released on the splendid Ville Hautakangas’ debut album 12 Premieres! Soon avaiable on streaming platforms! The concert is part of the Pirkanmaa Piano Festival.

Moreover I will also be travelling thanks to these concerts to Berlin 9-12th of November, to New York 13-15th of November, to Winchester Virginia 16-19th of November, to Princeton University 20th of November as well as within Finland to Jakobstad 23-26th of November and Tampere 28th of November, so please feel free to reach out if you are in the vicinity.

Composer Cecilia Damström. ©Photo by Ville Juurikkala