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!

Wasteland Reviews

Two weeks since the premiere of Wasteland with the fantastic Norrlandsoperan and superb Ville Matvejeff!

Here the heart warming reviews:

"The premiere of the Finnish-Swedish composer Cecilia Damström’s work Wasteland in five short movements was probably the work I was really looking forward to the most. The music was characterized by strong dynamics, shifting richness of colour and, not least, sharp contrasts. Here, the orchestral outfit is really used for a striking rhythm. With its themes around the clothing industry and greenwashing, the work also conveyed something as unusual as a sharp post in the ongoing climate debate. Norrlandsoper’s symphony orchestra really played at its peak and the conductor Ville Matvejeff’s way of leading the orchestra really celebrated triumphs. It also reminds me what a spectacular “instrument” the symphony orchestra is in capable hands."

by Bengt Hultman, Västerbottens-Kuriren, 2nd of September 2022

"Now we got to enjoy a piece of very entertaining orchestral music, where Damström enhances as much sound effects as she can, supported in an exemplary manner by the conductor Ville Matvejeff. It becomes a patchwork of colorful contrasts where Damström weaves in quotes from “Den blomstertid nu kommer”, a snippet from “Carmen”, a couple of teasingly familiar schlager refrains, resounding trombone glissandos, clinks, thumps and plink-plonks from the percussionists, well, anything you can wish for. "

by Gunnar Wiklund, Folkbladet, 2nd of September 2022

Big thank you to Norrlandsoperan and Ville Matvejeff for the fantastic premiere and to Erik Mikael Karlsson, Dan Turdén, Stefan Holmström and Gene Kindell for having me and for a great week in Umeå!

Have good start into the new week everyone!
Cecilia

Composer Cecilia Damström. Photo by Ville Juurikkala

Photo: Ville Juurikkala 
Makeup: Maria Boucht Makeup
Jacket: MIAM Clothing
Music Publisher: Gehrmans Musikförlag

Wasteland

 This week it's time for the world premiere of Wasteland with Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra and Ville Matvejeff! This 20 minute orchestra piece in five movements is the craziest piece of music I have written so far, my own "Rite of Spring". The rehearsals sounded fantastic and I can't wait for the premiere on Thursday the 1st of September!

Wasteland is inspired by some very complex issues, and because complex issues can't be explained with a few words, hence long program note below:

Every year an average Swede will buy 13 kilograms of clothes and throw away about 7.5 kilograms of clothes. About 60 percent of the clothes that are thrown away are whole and clean, but only 3.8 kilograms of textiles per person are annually collected by charity organisations. At least 0.13 kilograms of clothes per person are sold second hand. In Finland the numbers are even higher. As much as 19 kilograms of clothes are bought and 13 kilograms are thrown away annually per person.  For producing one kilogram of cotton you will need 7 000 – 29 000 litres of water and 0.3 –1 litre of oil.  To produce one kilogram of cloth generates about 10-15 kilograms of  greenhouse gases.

In recent years second hand clothes have become increasingly popular in Scandinavia, and bringing your clothes to a collection is considered a way to “have a clean conscience”. But according to a report by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle only around 20 percent of the collected clothes can be sold in shops in Scandinavia. Around 10 percent are burnt immediately and up to 70 percent are sent further to sorting units, usually situated in the Baltic countries or Germany. At this point a small part is used for upcycling, such as fillings for car seats. But most of the clothes are sent to some of the poorest countries in the world, like for instance Mozambique. The black market of cheap bad quality clothes disrupts these countries’ own textile industry. As a large part of the clothes are of too bad quality to wear anymore, they end up in landfills.

The first movement “Wear” is about how we use different clothes for different occasions, like for instance certain clothes for christmas parties, maybe other clothes for concerts and again something else when we are going out partying with friends. The clothes might be bought second hand and be used several times, but everything at an increasing tempo.

The second movement “Toss” is the journey the clothes make together with their owner to collection containers where they are tossed in, and from where they are collected by a lorry. The third movement “Sort” is a description of collection and sorting halls. The movement is like a slow “zoom out” during which you slowly begin to realise what a large amount of “Christmas- and party clothes” there are intended to be recycled: in Finland annually around 14 million kilograms and in Sweden around 38 million kilograms, an overwhelming amount.

The fourth movement “Burn” is about what happens to at least 80 percent of all textile waste: it is burned with mixed waste. In best case the waste burning can be used for generating new energy, but it is not a sustainable way to use resources.

The last movement “Flow” is about what we call “Greenwashing”, in other words marketing something as sustainable even though it actually isn’t. In an investigating article by Yle a factory plant of the Finnish firm Fortum is viewed in detail. The factory refines salts from environmentally hazardous APC ashes (APC = Air Pollution Control) from incineration waste. Then these salts are rinsed out together with the wastewater of the process, straight into the Baltic Sea, as there is “lack of proof that it would be harmful for the environment”. The regulations which state that ashes from incineration waste should not be used unrefined, due to environmental risks, are circumvented in this way. 

Wasteland is a shout out that recycling can’t be “one option of many”, as it has to be the only viable choice for our resources to be sufficient. The responsibility for recycling shouldn’t lie solely with consumers, but should also be mandatory for producers. With this piece, I want to make people understand that if we can “afford” to consume, we must also be able to afford to take care of the waste we are creating. This must be regulated by law so that the responsibility cannot be shifted to poorer and / or corrupt countries.

Photo by the fantastic Ville Juurikkala

ICE nominated for the Teosto-Prize!

In the midst of everything terrible happening in the world, one amazing thing happened in my life that I would like to share with you: my piece ICE is nominated for the Teosto-prize alongside 11 other amazing works of music by colleagues! ICE was commissioned by Lahti Green Capital of Europe 2021 and was premiered by the world's first carbon neutral orchestra Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by their fantastic chief conductor Dalia Stasevska.

Teosto-Prize nominees 2022. Photo by Jussi Helttunen

About the piece ICE: The piece is inspired by melting ice and in the piece we can hear how landscapes and winter become ever shorter, in the end while alarm signals are chiming and all possible breaks are put into action. Through this piece I try to express how global warming as well as the collapse of ecosystems and the ever faster growing tempo of the world, is killing the beautiful snow and ice structures of millions of years, and how the heart of the earth is fighting for its existence through each beat. In this piece I have also tried to describe what happens if we WILL take action: you can hear a rewind, how action has an impact and can make us go back to winters. The name ICE stands both for ice and for “In Case of Emergency”.

Cecilia Damström: ICE. Photo by Jussi Helttunen

The whole launch event of the Teosto Prize can be watched (in Finnish) online under this link. The nominees have been mentioned the Finnish media by Helsingin Sanomat, YLE, Hufvudstadsbladet, Soundi, Rumba, Keski-Uusimaa and Etelä-Saimaa.The Teosto-prize will be awarded on the 19th of May 2022, but as cheesy as it sounds: I feel already like a winner for having been nominated for this prize. 

If you haven’t yet heard ICE, have a listen here via the link below! (And you can of course always also listen a second or third time!  )

ICE by Lahti Symphony Orchestra

About the Teosto-prize (in Finnish)

Happy International Women’s Day!

Happy International Women’s Day! Very honoured that the Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto has chosen to highlight my music alongside the music of 15 other talented composers in their article. I hope music can bring you hope also in these difficult times.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Trigger Warnings: Racism, Sexism, Violence

Today the 25th of November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

Violence against any human is always a product of a complex system of power and inequality, a system, that campaigns like MeToo, BlackLivesMatter and many more have tried to dismantle since years.

 

I believe in the good in all humans, that most of us want to become better humans and strive for a better world. For me the “woke movement” has been a proof of that: a growing number of people trying to educate themselves about their own privileges, get informed about the basics of intersectional feminism and working on changing their way of speaking to make it more inclusive and a safe space for as many as possible.

 

However, since last Friday Finland has been buzzing after the scandal on national TV. ( Yle’s Marja Sannikka discussion program where first the whole “woke culture” was questioned after which astronomer Esko Valtaoja used the racist N-word twice in a discussion which left the reporter Renaz Ebrahimi bewildered). It has been very disappointing to watch: both the program itself as well as the media coverage it got afterwards.

 

Here are a few points of prevailed power structures that have upset me:

1. Why would you interview two white males (Valtaoja and Tammisalo)about racism, when they never have studied anything to do with racism or with intersectional feminism. This is a very important and difficult subject, where terminology is very important. Why invite people who neither have the terminology nor even personal experience.

   
   

2. Why juxtaposition a person of colour (Ebrahimi), who has a lot of knowledge about racism and intersectional feminism, with a person who has no knowledge in the field and say that “everyone has the right to their opinion”. No, no one has the right to racism or oppression in the name of “free speach”.

   
   

3. The person of colour (Ebrahimi), who rightly was upset of the usage of the N-word, has been portrayed as “aggressive and emotional” by press and many on social media. It is absolutely absurd that the person calling out the racist behaviour is being portrayed as the “agressive” one, and not the one using the racist language (in a calm voice).

   
   

4. The absurd juxtaposition, of a white male (Valtaoja) and white female Sannikka) arguing for “free speach” against a woman of colour (Ebrahimi) who opposes hate speech, has made the internet explode. The outcome has been that: Ebrahimi has received hundreds of death threats and other threats over social media. Sannikka’s program has been cancelled. Valtaoja has been given media coverage by Iltasanomat to tell “his version”.

 

Here we see usage (and misusage) of power in a nutshell, and the outcome was just an other “textbook example” of how structural oppression works. The person of colour who happened to be a woman had to pay the highest price, although she only called out racism and said it was unacceptable. 

 

Threat of violence against women is used very actively also today to try shut up women’s voices.

 

Lets try to change that, together, okay?

© Cecilia Damström 2021