Recapitulation of Spring 2014

Spring 2014 has been absolutely the most crazy and amazing spring so far in my composer career. Well, already if you consider that I have written 104 blog posts about what happened from the end of February until the beginning of June (so approximately during three month time), I guess that gives you some kind of picture HOW much has been going on… But in case you don’t have time to read all 104 blog posts, I will summarize last spring in one post, partly for my own sake.

So in January I broke up after four years in a relationship, which contributed to my decision to apply for masters in Sweden. I also participated in Vocal Espoo’s choral composition competition.

In February I got to know that both I and also our composer association Tampering had been given grants by the Finnish cultural trust foundation, which was great news!

In February my piece “Expressionen” was performed in Helsinki to a enthusiastic audience.

In March I travelled Tampere-Helsinki-Stockholm-Malmö-Copenhagen-Gothenburg-Stockholm-Helsinki-Tampere for entrance exams at three universities in Sweden (and one day sightseeing in Copenhagen), and got full points in the entrance exam at Malmö.

On the 14th of March I also made my Canadian début with my piece Loco for solo viola, which according to my friend, Canadian composer Paolo Griffin, wasreceived with standing ovations.

In the middle of March I also started writing this blog, A Composers Diary!

In the end of March I both produced and played my own piece Piano Delirium in the “Korvat Auki Tampere” concert in Pietiläsali, in the main library Metso in Tampere.

In April the music theatre production Buss Number 13 including 5 of my pieces, had three performances (and one pre-premiere) at the Tampere Hall, and the last performance was part of the contemporary music festival Tampere Biennale 2014. More over my pieces got a great review in the local newspaper Aamulehti.

In April I also participated in a conducting course, in which I conducted the orchestrated version of my own song cycle Dagbok, and the piece was premiered at the final concert of the course.

In the rest of April I worked as a producer for my own concert. I put together an orchestra, handed out 800 flyers in front of the Tampere Hall, contacted the radio station and two newspapers (which all three made interviews with me about the up coming concert, which was great for getting audience!) and led many of the rehearsals.

Suomen Työväen Musiikkiliitto offered me a publishing contract for my choral piece Kielikurssi for children's’ choir this spring and it will come out next winter!

On the 14th of May I had myfirst composers recital, with over 200 people in the audience and a good review in the daily newspaper Aamulehti. It included premieres of my choral works Visheten and Min Gud.

Moreover in May my piano solo piece Psychedelic was premiered at the composers concert in Tampere and my solo viola piece Loco was performed at the RRR!! Festival in Helsinki.


In addition to all above named I also have written my thesis and defended it, AND written a 10 minute piece for symphony orchestra (while sleeping 2 night on the floor of my school) and have passed my final exams for becoming a composer.

Finally my choral works El jardín de las morenas and Credo have been premiered at the VocalEspoo choral festival, have been awarded third and joint second prize and have been broadcast by the National Finnish Radio Company Yle.

I think I can call it a day. Or a spring, that is to say.

Two Composition Prizes at VocalEspoo!

Sunday the 1st of June 2014. Slept once again about 5 hours and up again for the final spring meeting of the composer’s association Korvat Auki. We checked through the finance of this year, went through what’s happening next year and who will be on the board of next year.

Checking the financial situation of this year at the Korvat auki!-meeting 1.6.2014.
Photo © Cecilia Damström

After the meeting I hurried home, because I had to get ready for the concert of the evening; the prize winners concert of the international choral composition competition at the VocalEspoo vocal festival!

In Januray I sent in my scores to the composition competition. I sent in my ready piece “Credo “ (for mixed choir) and wrote a new piece for children's choir in my 4 spare days of Christmas “holidays” called “El jardín de las morenas”. In composition competitions you very often have to participate with an emblem and I really enjoy inventing silly emblems. So this was the case also of this competition, where I decided to call my self “Hurri”, which is a racist word for Swedish speaking Finns in Finland. I love self irony and being a Swedish speaking Finn my self I feel I have the right to call my self this. (The same way some black people in the US talk about them selves as “nigga’s”  among them selves but don’t want to be called it by others, also I as a Swedish speaking Finn find it okay to call my self a “hurri”).

Usually how ever this emblem is only read by the jury, and as soon as the winner is elected the real name of the composer is announced. This time how ever it wasn’t so. Instead I was notified by the secretary of the competition that both my pieces had won some kind of prize in the competition, but she couldn’t say which prizes and they would be announced when the emblem’s were revealed at the end of the concert! And the concert is going to be broadcast on the national radio as well!

I arrived on good time to the welcoming ceremony an hour before the concert, where we were served salads, warm food and dessert and sparkling wine of course. I met again the music critique Mats Liljeroos, who was writing a review of the concert for the Swedish daily paper of Finland called Huvudstadsbladet. But I was surprised how few people I knew at the reception.

The general atmosphere was slightly nervous at the opening ceremony, because none of us composers had heard a single rehearsal of the pieces (of course) nor did we know exactly what to expect of the occasion. Also the arrangers (except the secretary) didn’t know who of us was who.

Opening ceremony of VocalEspoo 2014 on the 1st of June. I'm in the pink dress.
Photo © Maarit Kytöharju

I couldn’t publicly invite people on Facebook, as I normally would have done, because I wasn’t allowed yet to tell people I had won any prize, but I had invited my relatives, so my both grandmothers and two of my aunts came to listen, and of course my parents, which made me very happy.

When the Tapiola Choir started my piece “El jardín de las morenasI” a wave of shock ran through me. In the beginning of the piece I have written “smack your lips”, without further explanation, thinking of the kind of smacking sound when you eat food (with your mouth open). Now how ever they were making loud smacks like fish or horse hooves! But after the first 5 second’s when the feeling of bewilderment and chock slowly began to leave me, I noticed that it actually sounded really good the way they way they did it. (As a composer usually everything that is “different” from the way you imagined it is “wrong”, but when you get used to it you notice it isn’t that bad after all.) 

The Tapiola Choir conducted by Pasi Hyökki at VocalEspoo 1.6.2014.
Photo © Maarit Kytöharju

After the lip-smacking incidence when the youth choir began to sing everything sounded actually even better than I had imagined. The conductor Pasi Hyökki had chosen very fast tempos, so the piece was almost 1:30 minutes shorter than I had composed it, but it was fine like this as well. The teenagers sang with so much energy and dedication and pronounced the Spanish texts so well that it was touching. I was so happy!

The Tapiola Choir taking a selfie. VocalEspoo 2014 Photo © Maarit Kytöharju

In the intermission I went to the bathroom and in the bathroom one of the girls from the Tapiola Choir was singing a movement from my piece. It felt very absurd sitting on the toilet while hearing some one actually singing your song, just for fun, on the toilet! So while washing my hands I asked the four about 13 year old girls, who were mirroring them selves, what it had been like to be part of this project, in which they had to learn four new (and contemporary) pieces for the concert. They at once got a bit stiff, because they guessed I was one of the composers, but didn’t of course know which piece was mine. So they answered politically very correctly and told about the process. They also told it had been quite a tiresome project because they had just a few weeks earlier been on tour in Japan with a completely different repertoire and had been in quite a hurry to learn the new songs for this concert.

My piece Credo was the last piece in the concert. The commentator for the radio was enjoying to read out my emblem, on which there always came a small giggle in the audience. He always read out my emblem both before and after the piece (as next we have/you just heard Hurri’s piece …) and on the last time he added “This is probably the first time in Finnish radio history that this word has been used in a neutral context” on which the audience laughed.

My Credo was performed by the chamber choir Key Ensemble conducted by Teemu Honkanen. Honkanen kept the tempo’s very much like in my score and everything was exactly like I expected it to be, so I was very happy also with this performance!

Key Ensemble at VocalEspoo 2014. Photo © Maarit Kytöharju

After this performance it was time for the revelation of the emblems and prize winners. I got a third prize in the children's choir category with “El jardín de las morenas” and a joint second prize with my “Credo” in the mixed choir category! So I was very happy! My family had places at the very front, so they were happily taking pictures with their phones.

The prize winners of the international VocalEspoo choral composition competition.
Photo © Maarit Kytöhaju

After the concert, when finally all names had been revealed, there were so many people to talk to. (I wish people wouldn’t always be in such a hurry home, so that you would have time to speak to more people after concerts, before all disappear…) Both Pasi Hyökki and Teemu Honkanen came to thank me for the piece and asked if their version was “at all right”, and I told about the smacking incident, but that Hyökki's solution had been great as well. Both of them asked “But you are Swedish speaking, aren’t you?” on which I answered “Yes of course, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the right to call my self Hurri”.

I was flattered by all the nice comments I got to hear from so many people, but the most memorable comment I got from the four teenage girls I had spoken to in the bathroom in the intermission. They came running to me, extremely happy and started talking eagerly all at the same time “Congratulations! We thought your piece was the best! We are so sorry you didn’t win! We actually voted among us choir members, and we would have chosen your piece to be the winner. But congratulations anyway! And the text were so nice, we really the choice of your text. And the pieces were really nice as well, not too long and pleasant to sing and not too easy but not too difficult either. And we guessed you were one of the composers, but we didn’t want to say anything, as we didn’t know which of the pieces was yours. But we were so happy when you walked on stage and we saw it was your piece!  I was singing it in the batroom, you noticed it didn’t you? Oh I really liked it, especially that part I was singing. Oh but congratulations once more to your prizes! Bye!”

I think that was the nicest feed back I have ever got in my life, and it seemed to be one of the most honest ones as well, every word from the bottom of their sweet hearts, they truly made my day!

Me, a very happy composer! A third and a joint second prize at the
VocalEspoo International Choral Composition Competition 2014.
Photo © Damström

After this I was extremely tired, but of course I went to have a drink at the musicians stamping ground Urkki with a few friends. We of course ran in to other musicians there, a few pianists. At about midnight I moved on to my composer friends Matei Gheorghiu’s and Sebastian Dumitrescu'sbirthday party at Clavis, from where I walked home at dawn and finally at 4 AM went to bed.

The sun is rising at 4 AM over Huopalahti (in Helsinki).
Photo © Cecilia Damström

Recollection - Matei Gheorghiu's Concert

Saturday May 31st. After handing in my compositions for my final exam last Tuesday I can’t really remember very much. I think I have mainly been "dead"? Anyway, today my rabbit Viljo moved to our summer cottage. We took a train together from Tampere to Helsinki, and of course I had to take an obligatory “Traveling with my rabbit”-selfie. My father was so nice and got Viljo (and my other luggage as well) from the train station and brought him straight to our summer cottage.

My rabbit Viljo and me traveling from Tampere to Helsinki by train. 31.5.2014

After this I met up with my friend Leo and we went and looked at my friend Matei Gheorghiu’s composition concert. The concert took place at “Balderin sali” on Aleksanterinkatu and he organized it together with the photographer Octavian Balea and painter (artist) Elina Nissinen, so an interartproject in it’s full meaning.

The concert was structured with some arrangements of Mussorgsky’s “pictures at an art exhibition” for two accordions, that were played in between Matei’s own pieces.

The programme of the concert Recollection 31.5.2014 was:

Matei Gheorghiu: Experiment for 2 accordions

Modest Musorgski: Pictures in an exhibition – Gnomes  (accordion)*

Matei Gheorghiu: Piano Sonata no. 2**

Modest Musorgski: Pictures in an exhibition – Old Castle (accordion)*

Matei Gheorghiu: Ihana surullinen ilta (soprano and piano)***

Modest Musorgski: Pictures in an exhibition: Market place (accordion)*

Matei Gheorghiu: Ratio Spei and Good Freedom (French horn and piano) **

Modest Musorgski: Pictures in an exhibition: Baba Yaga* and The great gate of Kiev (accordion)*

* Projections of artworks by Elina Nissinen

** Projections of photographs by Octavian Balea

*** Live-painting by Elina Nissinen and Octavian Balea

________________________________________________

Break: Nissinen exhibition in the cafeteria

________________________________________________

Little Memory Stories

- Text and photographs by Balea

- Musical direction and performance by Matei Gheorghiu and The Korvat Auki ensemble.

Musicians: Kiril Kozlovski and Maritta Manner: piano, Annami Hylkilä: soprano, Julian Leslie French: horn, Josip Nemet and Mia Cojbasic: accordions, The Korvat Auki ensemble

Artist Elina Nissinen, composer Matei Gheorghiu and pianist Maritta Manner
at Recollection 31.5.2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Artist Elina Nissinen, photographer Octavian Balea and composer Matei Gheorghiu
at Recollection 31.5.2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

I was very happy I got to see the piece “Little Memory Stories” a second time, after having seen it once at the RRR!!–Festival two weeks earlier. This time I had time to look at the pictures, as I had read the text the previous time, and I really liked it. An other piece that I liked especially much was Matei’s piano sonata, which can be heardunder this link.

After the concert we of course went for a few drinks, and then a small number of us rounded of the great evening once again at Siltanen’s.

Elina Nissinen, Sergio Castrillón and my friend Leo. Photo © Cecilia Damström

The RRR!! - One Day Festival

Saturday the 17th of May, the day of festivities! So what is happening today? Well: Korvat Auki is arrangint the mini festival “RRR!! Taide valtaa”, it is the Restaurant Day, it is the National Day of Norway (although that doesn’t really affect me) and it’s my sister’s birthday! 

Up after an other refreshing night of 4 hours sleep and ran off to the rehearsal of the Korvat Auki concert tonight. My solo viola piece Loco will be performed by my friend Oili Tuhkanen and my friend Liisa Oikkonen has made a choreography to the piece and will perform it at the concert tonight! Was a bit anxious because this is the first rehearsal that I could attend, but everything went fine.

Viola player Oili Tuhkanen 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

Dancer Liisa Oikkonen 17.5.2014.

After the rehearsal I had a quick lunch and then took part of the RRR!! festivals “guided tour” around the Sibelius Academy’s R-house, and was a really cool tour! We were guided by composer Lauri Supponen around the R-building and saw many different performances including dance, singing, music improvisation, a monologue and two wind instruments playing in to a old piano for getting resonance! This one-day festival is organized as Korvat Auki’s way of saying good bye to the Sibelius Academy’s  R-house, which will be out of use for the next five years, because our parliament will be using it for conferences while the main hall of the house of parliament is in renovation. Korvat Auki has had a deal with the Sibelius Academy that we are allowed to book the venue of the R-house four times a year, and unfortunately we haven’t yet got any promise about some other venue that we can use for Korvat Auki concerts now that this one is out of use for five years.

The poster for RRR!! 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

Matilda Seppälä trying out an installation at RRR!! Taide valtaa. 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

After the tour of the R-house I headed home. Time for shower and make up. Then I headed back to the city centre and took part of the restaurant day together with Matilda and we had a really nice afternoon, although a bird decided to take a shit on my shoulder, lovely…

Quinoa sallad made by Kalle Autio
for Korvat Auki's Restaurant Day
17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

Kalle Autio at Korvat Auki's Restaurant Day. 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

My piece Loco went really well in the concert and I was very happy. The concert was filled with a lot of experimental art, which was both cool and sometimes also confusing (which I think also is cool in it’s own way!). But sadly there were also great technical problems with getting the computer attached to the big screen. So while Lauri managed with to entertain the audience just by his good stage presence and telling about the festival, Matei Gheorghiu and OctavianBalea managed to fix everything so that their show could be shown as well; and it was worth waiting for. It was a film with Octavian Baleas photos combined with a cynical text by a friend of Matei (whose name I don’t remember) and moreover Matei had written a great comprovised piece for the Korvat AukiEnsemble.  (Comprovised means partly composed and partly improvised, so it is like a “composed improvisation”.) I have to say I got a total information overload, because I didn’t really manage to look at the pictures at the same time as I read along the text and listened to the music… But it was beautiful, so I hope I will get the chance to see it again!

Elina Lajunen at RRR!! 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

Matilda Seppälä RRR!! 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

In the second half there was a piece for cello and electronics by Sergio Castrillón, which was made into a drama piece with the versatile artist ElinaLajunen who both sang, acted, tried to sell (as part of the show) hats made of ties (which she actually had made her self!), and danced tango. Then there was a strong performance by the tap-dance artist Hannaleena Markkanen to the music of Kalle Autio and last but not least, there was a piece written by my friend Dante Thelestam in which I was honoured to take part. Because this concert was a goodbye concert to the concert venue of the R-house of the Sibelius Academy, Dante had written a piece for the chairs of the venue, which are famous for their bouncing sound after flipping back when you stand up. So the audience was given different papers with words that started on R. Then Dante, Aino, Niilo and I went up on stage and read aloud words that began with R. If someone in the audience had the word on their own paper they were supposed to push down a chair and let it go (so that it would bounce back into place). So reading out different words in different rhythms made the whole spectacle into a really cool piece!

The chairs of the venue of the R-house.
© Cecilia Damström

Me, the happy composer after the performance of Loco at the RRR!! concert 17.5.2014.
And wearing a hat made from a tie, made by Elina Lajunen.

After the concert Korvat Auki offered all the participants of the concert some sparkling wine in the backroom and we had some nostalgic speeches about what a great Korvat Auki year we have had, filled with so many good concerts.

Viola player Oili Tuhkanen, Korvat Auki's Chariman Matei Gheorghiu and
cellist Sergio Castrillón at RRR!! 17.5.2014
© Cecilia Damström

Some sparkling wine for everyone who helped organize the RRR!! concert.
17.5.2014 © Cecilia Damström

More pics from the event can be found here.

After a while we all moved to have a drink at the restaurant Kaisla. I should have been sensible and gone home, but instead I went with my friend Sergio and two of his friends to the bar Siltanen in Sörnäinen for dancing.

Jealousy

Three of my fellow composers stayed the night at my place and we had a really interesting discussion before falling asleep about how jealousy can destroy friendships. The discussion ignited from a quote once said by a composer who shall go unnamed: “Composers can never be friends because they are always competitors”. Personally, I find this quote ridiculous and I think it only applies to very self centred and narrow-minded people. But in some way I can also slightly understand this thought, and considering relationships I can even somewhat agree with it; I can’t imagine being together with a composer (truthfully, I can’t imagine being together with anyone at the moment, but that’s a different chapter… but especially not with a composer).

When it comes down to friendship I don’t understand how people can destroy friendships due to jealousy! Personally I feel there is enough room for all good music and if you work hard (not only with composing but also work for getting your music performed) you can always say you have done your best and gave it a shot. Only because your friend gets good opportunities doesn’t mean there are less opportunities available for you. Maybe you wouldn’t have got the same opportunities in any case!

Of course almost everyone feels jealous once in a while, but even if I think some person/piece hasn’t deserved the praise/acknowledgement it gets, it doesn’t mean I think less of the person or dislike him/her! Well, maybe I will understand this quote one day, when I’m bitter, old and gray, but I will do my best never to grow bitter (nor jealous)! Old and gray is okay with me. But for now I’m just happy to have so many great composer friends with whom I can share my thoughts about music, art and all kind of other beautiful things in life! Without composer friends for instance, these sorts of Korvat Auki concerts wouldn’t be possible to arrange, think about that!

Korvat Soi!

Saturday April 26th. Today was the second ‘traditional’ Korvat Auki (Open Ears) concert in Tampere, but this time in Pirkanmaanmusiikkiopisto. (Read about the first one here).  What I mean by traditional is a concert where all the music is only composed by Korvat Auki members and then performed by students. The very first Korvat Auki concert in Tampere was a concert with the German new music group Neophon ensemble in September 2013. In the concert Neophon ensemble played a contemporary programme including three pieces by Korvat Auki composers, and the same programme was played in both Helsinki and Tampere (as well as in Riga, Tallinn and Rostock!). But like I said, today we had a “typical” Korvat Auki concert containing 100% new music by young Korvat Auki composers.

Cellist Aino Palosaari. © Cecilia Damström

Korvat Auki composer Lauri Supponen having a laugh with his musicians,
clarinetist Andreas Heino and violinist Heidi-Annina Nikkilä.
© Cecilia Damström

The programme of today was:

Lauri Supponen: Da Camera

violin: Heidi-Anniina Nikkilä, cello: Taina Raittila, flute: Jenni Halonen, clarinet: Andreas Heino

Lasse Kallioniemi: Kristalli (first performance)

flute: Anu Miikkulainen, cello: Juho Nissi

Kalle Autio: Kolme laulua Santōkan teksteihin (first performance)

soprano: Piia Rytkönen, piano: Tuomas Salokangas

Saper Şahbaz: For Naima (first performance)

violin: Elias Koivisto, cello: Aino Palosaari, piano: Tuomas Salokangas

-intermission-

Sebastian Dumitrescu: Autoportret

electric-bass: Sebastian Dumitrescu

Matei Gheorghiu: Ihana surullinen ilta

soprano: Anna Ranki, piano: Tuomas Turriago

Dante Thelestam: Baba panda (first performance)

percussion: Henri Sakki ja Mauri Myllys

Charles Van Hemelryck: Grandes vacances

soprano: Hannele Taipale, piano: Jasper Koekoek

Pianist Tuomas Salokangas and soprano Piia Rytkönen
before the first performance of Kalle Autios three songs,
where the soprano gets to hit a gong!
© Cecilia Damström

All the musicians and composer of the Korvat Soi! -concert (part 1).
© Cecilia Damström

All the musicians and composer of the Korvat Soi! -concert (part 2).
© Cecilia Damström

We had good luck with the weather today, the building suited the occasion really well and generally everything went very well today! Everyone was in a calm but good mood. Originally I was supposed to be the concert producer, but I had to back out and luckily Matilda took over the task! In my defence I have already produced two Korvat Auki concerts in Tampere this year. Matilda was a superb concert producer! She had to coordinate 17 musicians but she was as calm as a summer breeze all the time, I admired her serenity greatly!

Musicians already feeling releaved in the intermission.
Pianist Tuomas Salokangas, violinist Elias Koivisto and flutist Jenni Halonen.
© Cecilia Damström

Korvat Auki composers Saper Shabaz, Charles van Hemelryck
and Matei Gheorghiu. © Cecilia Damström

I really enjoyed the concert today! Maybe it was because I had sufficiently ‘little’ to do considering arrangements in this concert (only flowers and sparking wine were my responsibility), so I could fully enjoy the music. Moreover I was in a really good listening mood this afternoon. I liked all the pieces in the concert but my two favourite composers of today where Supponen and Autio. Have a listen to Supponens DaCamera here! And for more pictures of the concert click here.

Concert producer and composer Matilda Seppälä and me.
© Lauri Supponen

Composer Lauri Supponen, composer Sebastian Dumitresctu
and soprano Piia Rytkönen. © Cecilia Damström

Korvat Auki composers: Me, Sebastian Dumistrescu and Charles van Hemelryck

After the concert most of us headed to the ‘Egyptian restautant’ JallaJalla (more like a Kebab-Pizzeria) for getting some food, and after we spent the rest of the evening in our stamping ground Bar K.

We were all quite exhausted, so already at 2 AM I headed home with my guests Dante, Lauri and Matei. I was very happy to hear Matei say that he thought this was the best Korvat Auki concert ever!

Brass Chamber Music

Saturday April 26th. Today my trumpetist friend (and my former flatmate) Mari Pakarinen had her chamber music exam at 12 PM in the Finlayson church.

Colored windows and shadows at the Finlayson church. © Cecilia Damström

The programme was:

Joseph Horovitz: Music Hall Suite

Soubrette song

Trick-cyclists

Adagio-team

Soft shoe suffle

Les girls

Luis Pasquet: Suite for brass quintet

Prelude

Sarabande

Gigue

Witold Lutoslawski: Mini Overture

Karismatik-kvintetti

Sauli Saarinen, trumpet

Eero Kiukkonen, trumpet

Ilona Keltti, horn

Ulla Ahonen, trombone

Tiia Luoma, tuba

Oskar Böhme: Brass Sextett in E flat minor, op. 30

Adagio Ma Non Tanto

Scherzo. Allegro Vivace

Andante Cantabile

Allegro Con Spirito

Knitted Mitten brass sextet

Mari Pakarinen, cornet

Hannu Raijas, trumpet

Antero Suvilaakso, trumpet

Ansku Jämsä, horn

Heikki Niskakangas, trombone

Sanna Sorvo, euphonium

Knitted Mitten brass sextet @ Cecilia Damström

I was very positively surprised by the piece Maris sextet played by the German composer Oskar Böhme! I have never before heard such well sounding and well orchestrated brass music! Usually brass music is for me something more like “out door music for parties”, but the oktet was very different from that kind of music and I really enjoyed it! Mari of course got full points for her exam (5/5).

Eero Kiukkonen, Sauli Saarinen and Mari Pakarinen.
Three happy trumpetists who all just passed their chamber music exam
with full points! Congratulations! © Cecilia Damström

I was planning on composing this afternoon, but somehow I didn’t manage to compose at all… Instead I once again tried to clean up a bit, because tonight three composers are staying at my place: Dante Thelestam, Lauri Supponen and Matei Ghiorghiu. I also had to go and buy the roses and sparkling wine for the concert and at 17 o’clock Niilo Tarnanen and Lauri already picked me up for the Korvat Soi -concert at 18 o'clock.

Me and my dear friend Mari after her exam. © Tuomo Sukanen