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

Happy New Year 2018!

A good year behind with several premieres and concerts all over Finland and also a few concerts in Sweden and Germany as well! In 2017 the great male choir Brahe Djäknar premiered “Sailing to Windward” in Turku in May, my piano quintet “Minna” got an outstanding premiere at the Kokonainen Festival in August, the excellent choir Jubilate premiered my “Missa Brevis” in November, my opera for children “Dumma Kungen” got a perfect premiere and review in November and my song cycle “Tidens ordning” got a great premiere as one of the finalists of the Yrjö Kilpinen Lied Composition Competition, which was broadcast by the Finnish Broadcasting company!

This Christmas I got many nice presents, but my favourite present was that my opera “Dumma Kungen” got nominated for the title “Children’s Opera of the Year” alongside nine other great productions! The winner will be announced at the Helsinki opera gala on January 14th 2018, keep your fingers crossed for me until then!

This year I have again many exiting projects and commissions coming up: a new piano quintet for the Kokonainen Festival and an orchestra piece for the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, among others! I will also have my first public lecture at the Sibelius Academy on the 8th of February, very exciting indeed!

Hope you all have had a wonderful year 2017 and I wish you a even better year 2018!

Wishing You a Happy New Year 2018! Photo by Marthe Veian Photography

The Spanish Tour Schedule

The accordionist Janne Valkeajoki won the XXIII “Arrasate-Hiria” International Accordion Competition in 2015. A part of the prize is an organised solo concert tour in the North of Spain. For this tour he commissioned me with a solo piece with a maximal duration of 15 minutes. The commission received funding by the Madetoja-säätiö, was composed in spring 2016 and the piece "Shapes" will have it’s premiere next week on the 7th of December 2016 in San Sebastian, Spain. Janne has a beautiful programme consisting of three suits, one by Bach, one by me and one by Ravel. Janne is not only the first person to perform my solo suite Shapes, but as far as we know of, he is the first person to perform the whole “La tombeau de Couperin” on solo accordion. (The first performance of Ravel on accordion he gave on his previous tour in Serbia on the 7th of November 2016.)

The program for the Spanish tour is:

J.S.Bach - English Suite No. 5 (BWV 810)

Prelude

Allemande

Courante

Sarabande

Passepied I & II

Gigue

C. Damström - Shapes Op.46

The Rhomb

The Ascending Line

Circles and Ellipses

The Pentagon Chaconne

Dots

The Icosahedron

M. Ravel - Le tombeau de Couperin

Prélude
Fugue
Forlane
Rigaudon
Menuet
Toccata

Concert Schedule for Janne Valkeajoki:

Wednesday the 7th of December 2016 at 7:30 PM

At Tabakalera (4th floor) in San Sebastián 

(World Premiere of Shapes)

Thursday the 8th of December 2016 at 7 PM

At Teatro Mucipal of Alcañiz

Friday the 9th of December 2016 at 8 PM

At Casa de Cultura in Arrasate

Saturday the 10th of December 2016 at 7:30 PM

At Casa de Cultura in Aretxabaleta

Monday the 12th of December 2016 at 7 PM

At the Auditorio of Vandellós

Tuesday the 13th of December 2016 at 8 PM

At Auditorio “Pepita Sellés” in Barcelona

The Finnish premiere of Shapes will have to wait until March, when Janne will play his final diploma recital at the Sibelius Academy.

You are very welcome to any of the concerts!

Janne Valkeajoki and his accordion. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Our Graduation Party

Sunday the 29th of June my sister Jacintha and I celebrated our graduation! Both of us are now Bachelors of Music, she (in flute) after 3 years at the Sibelius Academy with 184 ECTS credits and I (in composition) after 6 years at Tampere University of Applied Sciences with 315 ECTS credits… Quite funny, isn’t it?

My sister Jacintha got her Bachelor of Music on the 18th of June, I'm so proud of her!
Photo © Cecilia Damström 

We had invited both friends and relatives, altogether over 100 people were invited and about 50 were able to come (but scattered all over the day). Our mother had baked lovely strawberry cakes and made lots of salad and other food for the guests. It was a really nice party, and I enjoyed both seeing lots of relatives whom I meet too seldom, as well as old school friends and getting to know Jacintha’s friends. The first guests arrived at about 3 PM (while I still was blow-drying my hair…) and the last guests left at about 4 or 5 AM. So once again a great party!

At our gradution party

Mum had baked lovely strawberry cakes.

Getting ready to serve sparking wine! Photo © C.Damström

Happy and proud parents! Thank you for all your support throughout the years!
Photo © Cecilia Damström

Grandmother with her newly graduated grandchildren, all in green!

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.

Composition Class

Thursday April 24th.

I have received an invitation for the entrance exams for masters at the Sibelius-Academy, which will take place on the 5-9 of May. With the invitation we also got two tasks, which have to be handed in on the first day of the entrance exams. Both tasks were one page of music, and we are supposed to compose a second page (about 10 bars) in the same style as the given task. The one piece is for oboe and piano in an impressionistic French style, so that isn’t a very difficult task. The second task is a song with piano accompaniment in a modern style with complicated rhythms, and I tried for 30 min to sight read that one page but didn’t manage! So I have no idea how I will be able to compose the second page! (By the way, the tasks change every year, so that is why I dare describe the tasks online.)

Today I had composition class. I had so many questions to my teacher Hannu Pohjannoro about non-compositional random stuff: if he thinks I can apply for the grant from our school and if he can write me a recommendation letter, questions about the old and new study plan in composition (in other words questions for my thesis) and also I wanted to discuss the up-coming entrance exams for masters at the Sibelius-Academy.

I have been working for quite a while on my orchestra piece “Unborn” (all together I have had the idea of the piece for three years!), but every time I bring it to class it feels like I have done (almost) nothing and that the piece is just as unready and at it’s beginning as the previous lesson… I guess every student writing a large (orchestra) piece has that feeling…? Well, I anyway had a long lesson as I had so much questions and Hannu managed once again to make good remarks and give good ideas what I could do with my orchestra piece.

Conducting Class Day Number 3

Saturday April 5th. Today the course began first at 14.00 so I had a good night sleep. Because the premiere for the musical theatre production Bus number 13 is tonight, I had to pack a lot with me for quite a long day.

Today it’s time for the second weekend of conducting, this time with Tuomas Hannikainen as our teacher. He also teaches conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He is not quite as much into technique as Juha Törmä, who was our teacher last week. (Although I heard Hannikainen is quite different, that is to say much stricter with technique with his students at the Academy.) I liked very much his way of teaching. He was a very enthusiastic man who was very exact with us that we show music and expression and what we want to make out of the sheet music we had in front of us.

Again it was very interesting to watch the other pupils Tuomas Kettunen and Hannes Merisaari conduct my song cycle Dagbok. I learn a lot both about conducting as well about how to write (compose) a clearer and better orchestra score! As I mentioned, I have very rarely played in an orchestra (twice as a soloist, and one summer camp playing cello in the youth orchestra led by Anna-Maria Helsing, the times before she was famous). So I sat beside the French horn today and noticed how hard it was to hear the soloist and how you mainly hear the instruments closest to you but not really the whole picture. (Self evident things for orchestra musicians of course.)

As the course began first at 14 o’clock today it also ended much later and I had to leave early, before the feedback session due to the premiere of Bus number 13. It was really a pity I missed the feedback session! But Hannikainen offered he could give me feedback next morning before the course would begin (so that means at 9.30), which was really nice of him!

Concerts of contemporary music in spring 2014

This spring 2014 there is a LOT of fun going on in both Tampere and Helsinki! So I have made a list of important/interesting events of contemporary music, mainly in Tampere but partly also in Helsinki. Now I recommend you to dig out your calendar and write down these events (unless you are following me very actively on Twitter ;) ).

MARCH 2014

14.3 at 7PM Tampere/Pyynikkisali: TEAK contemporary music theatre, with music composed by Tampering members Roope Mäenpää and Henri Sokka. Buy tickets or join the event on Facebook.

15.3 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Composition Concert of Jouni Kaipainen

21.3 at 7PM Tampere/Pyynikkisali: Pyynikki Sinfonia and Pori Sinfonietta play Segerstam, Berg and Sibelius, conducted by Leif Segerstam

22.3 at 7PM Tampere/ MD Dance Theatre: Triumffi, music by Jouni Kaipainen

25.3 at 6PM Helsinki/Helsinki Cathedral: Contemporary Music for Organ  

26.3 at 6PM Tampere/Metso Pietiläsali: Korvat Auki concert in cooperation with Tampere Biennale

         at 7PM Tampere/ MD Dance Theatre: Triumffi, music by Jouni Kaipainen

27.3 at 7PM Tampere/ MD Dance Theatre: Triumffi, music by Jouni Kaipainen

28.3 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra plays Tiensuu, Bartok, Gliére, Prokofiev, conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali

28.3 at 7PM Helsinki/Rock Church: Patrik Kleemola plays contemporary music for solo guitar. Concert arranged by Korvat Auki.

28-29.3 Helsinki MicroFest 2014 – a weekend of microtonal music

28.3 at 1PM Helsinki/Music Centre/Black Box: Lecture

28.3 at 3PM Helsinki/Music Centre/Black Box: Lecture

28.3 at 7PM Helsinki/Music Centre/Camerata: 24 Tones concert

29.3 at 10AM-2PM Helsinki/Music Centre/Black Box: Workshop 

29.3 at 7PM Helsinki/Music Centre/Black Box: 31 Tones
30.3 at 12PM Helsinki/Sibelius Academy/Rautatienkatu/Small Hall: Lecture
30.3 at 1PM Helsinki/Sibelius Academy/Rautatienkatu/Small Hall: 72 Tones and Beyond

APRIL 2014

2.4 at 6.30 PM Tampere/Pirkanmaan musiikkiopisto:  Composition concert of pupils from Pirkanmaan musiikkiopisto

5.4 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Bussi 13 (music theatre) premiere, music by composition students at TAMK (Cecilia Damström, Matilda Seppälä, Jarkko Pajunen, Pauli Marttinen, Roope Mäenpää, Tero Lanu and Matti Carter)

6.4 at 4PM Tampere/Tyllinsali: Final concert of Pirkanmaan pinna conducting masterclass. The orchestrated version of Cecilia Damströms piece Dagbok Op.21 will be performed with Jacintha Damström as soprano. 

8.4 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Bussi 13 (music theatre)

9-13.3 TAMPERE BIENNALE FESTIVAL

10.4 at 5PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Bussi 13 (music theatre), as part of Biennale

11.4 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra plays Vuori, Tiensuu, Meriläinen and Haapanen, conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing

12.4 at 7PM Helsinki/Malmitalo: NYKY ensemble performs Fautso Romitellis video-opera “An Index of Metals”

15.4 at 7PM Helsinki/Music centre/Camerata: Duos for bass clarinet

16.4 at 7PM Tampere/Pirkanmaan musiikkiopisto: Recital of Aarni Pennanen, contains one piece by Matilda Seppälä

25.4 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra plays Fagerlund, Ravel, Debussy

26.4 at 6PM Tampere/Pirkanmaan musiikkiopisto: Korvat Soi! Korvat Auki concert

MAY 2014

5.5 at 6PM Helsinki/Music centre/BlackBox: Klang Soikoon! Music by the composition students of the Sibelius Academy

7.5 at 7PM Tampere/Pyynikinlinna: Music by the composition class of the Music Academy of Tampere

14.5 at 7PM Tampere/Pyynikkisali: "Landet som icke är" Composition concert of Cecilia Damström, organized by Tampering

15.5 at 7PM Tampere/Tamperetalo: Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra plays Ligeti, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky

16.5 at 7PM Helsinki/Music Centre: The Radio Symphony Orchestra plays Nuorvala

17.5 the whole day Helinki/Sibelius Academy R-house: RRR!!!-happening with new music by Korvat Auki members (Cecilia Damströms Loco will be performed with a new dance choreography by Liisa Oikkonen.)

JUNE 2014

1.6 at 6PM Espoo/ Tapiola Hall: The Opening Concert of the Vocal Espoo Festival. The winning pieces of the International Choral Composition Competition will be performed by Ahjo Ensemble, Key Ensemble, EMO Ensemble, Tapiola Choir and YL Male Voice Choir.

Korvat Auki - Sininen hetki

On Wednesday the 26th of February the composer association Korvat Auki - Open Ears organized a concert named “Sininen hetki” at the chamber music hall of the Sibelius Academy on Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 9, Helsinki. The programme was music written by Korvat Auki members and it was performed mainly by students from the Sibelius Academy. The concert was organized in collaboration with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, so we advertised for them and they for us. (Our concert was at 5 PM and the RSO concert started at 7 PM, so many people went to both.)

In this concert my cycle of miniatures named “Expressionen Op.27” (Expressions) was once again performed, this time by the clarinettist Anton Morozov, the cellist Jenni Witick and the accordion player Yngvild Vivja Haaland Ruud.  They played really well and I am very happy with the concert! I was amazed by how fast they had learnt my music! And I’m also happy that they really enjoyed playing my music. Not only did they say it, but you could also see it in the concert and they have told me they want to record the piece for me in the Sibelius Academy studio! I am exited about that as well!

After the concert we hung out with other Korvat Auki members, first in Saint Urho’s Pub (also known as “Urkki” among musicians), then pizza in Kallio, and then I went back to Urkki where I met up with my friend and cellist Lukas Stasevskij and met among others the conductor Tuomas Rousi and the pianist Victoria Vatanskaja (who recently graduated from SibA). I also met a few of the musicians from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as all musicians always come to Urkki. It was a nice evening!

Here are a few photos from the concert that I took of my musicians.

And here you can listen to an earlier performance of my cycle Expressionen.

And here is the official Sininen Hetki Programme:

Korvat auki presents a Blue Moment among new music, a chamber concert where you can let yourself be transported by the latest works of the youngest generation, performed by young and prodigious musicians.

Matilda Seppälä - Sinustakin voisi puhua paljon

Kalle Autio - S'exciter

Aino Tenkanen - Trio oboelle, käyrätorvelle ja sellolle

Cecilia Damström - Expressionen Op. 27

Walter Sallinen - Spleen

Kristian Kivelä - I Hear With You

Jens Lindqvist - Asymptote

Musicians:

Juuli Markkanen, oboe

Lauri Supponen, cor anglais

Anton Morozov, clarinet

Aleksi Mäkimattila, horn

Mari Pakarinen, trumpet

Batia Murvitz and Maritta Manner, piano
Yngvild Vivja Haaland Ruud, accordion

Annika Fuhrmann, soprano

Lea Tuuri and Hanna Ponkala, violin

Eeva Saari, viola

Martta Valkeus, Lauri Rantamoijanen, Seeli Toivio and Jenni Witick, cello

Uniarts Sibelius-Academy R-house Chamber music hall

(Pohjoinen rautatiekatu 9, Helsinki)

10/5€

Ears open members and ticket holders of RSO evening concerts have free entry