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

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

Recording Minna with RSO

 Two days of recording DONE! Feeling super happy to have been given the opportunity to record my piece “Minna-Pictures from the Life of Minna Canth” with the amazing musicians from the Radio Symphony Orchestra ! This was my first “Kantanauha” (“Archiv Recording") EVER! 🤩 

Feels also special that such an amazing experience was my last “in person” event here in Finland for a while! Because *drumroll for announcement* in three weeks I will be moving to GERMANY for a one year artistic residency in Bamberg (Bavaria)!! 🤩

Composer Cecilia Damström

So if you know anybody who would like to rent my furnished two-room flat in Helsinki (Taka-Töölö) from May to March, let me know! 😅

FFF week 6: Avoid “Fast fashion”!

I would like to contribute to FFF (Fridays for Future) in my own way: by sharing one concrete action per week that YOU can do, and which I have done, for combating climate change. 

FFF week 6: Avoid “Fast fashion”!

WHY: Textile mills generate one-fifth of the world's industrial water pollution and use 20,000 chemicals, many of them carcinogenic, to make clothes.Most of the world's textile factories are in developing countries where governments can't keep pace with the industry’s massive pollution footprint.

WHAT CAN I DO: First of all: buy as little clothes as possible and use them for as long as possible. Seek for high quality clothes and look for sustainable clothing brands. Buy secondhand clothes and prolong in that way the life of clothes. Also when secondhand shopping I seek for high quality clothes that are in good shape, because if the piece of clothing has lasted the usage of one person and still looks good, that is for me an indication of high quality and hopefully a long lifespan for that piece of clothing. 

If you order on the internet: only order that what you REALLY plan on keeping, DON’T use your “home as a fitting room”, because all the unnecessary sending of clothes leaves a carbon footprint. Moreover sent back items are often more hard to sell, and can result in ending up in non EU countries for burning, which is a waste of clothing (and vaste of carbon footprint that went into making that piece of clothing). In Scandinavia Finland is the country that sends most back Internet purchased products, up to around 40% of all purchased items. Please think before ANY purchase you make, if you really need this item. <3 

Cecilia Damström 

In this selfie I’m wearing a dress I bought from a second hand store (UFF).

Links to several TV programs in Finnish and Swedish about this topic:

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-50677550

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-50183627

Sources:
https://www.nrdc.org/issues/encourage-textile-manufacturers-reduce-pollution

https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2021/03/10/ar-det-battre-for-miljon-att-handla-klader-pa-natet-eller-i-en-butik-expert-var

https://svenska.yle.fi/artikel/2021/03/08/kladerna-du-shoppade-och-returnerade-kan-brannas-upp-i-irak-vi-satte-sandare-i

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-50677550

https://arenan.yle.fi/1-50183627

Some thoughts on International Woman's Day!

Happy International Woman's Day!

International Woman's Day is a slightly "different" concert day compared to other concert days. Why? Because this is usually the only day in the year where you are likely to come across concert programs consisting of only female composers, while all other days of the year it is the norm to come across concert programs with only male composers.

If you would make every week a concert, and only this week included female composers, that is more or less also what the statistics for the world would be, around 1.9 percent. According to a survey of the 22 largest American orchestras, women composers accounted for only 1.8 percent of the total pieces performed in the 2014-2015 concert season. In the last years the numbers have gone slightly up, so maybe like adding a second all female concert on Mother's Day.

After knowing these not so encouraging numbers, it is therefore heart warming to see everyone who is trying to bring change. Thank You!

Thank you to 

Kokonainen

 for making concert series striving for equality. Thank you to the founders and artistic directors 

Linda Suolahti

 and 

Mari Viluksela

 for keeping up this wonderful work for already 5 years now! Thank you to 

Hbl - Hufvudstadsbladet

 and 

Wilhelm Kvist

 for questioning these norms and lifting these uncomfortable discussions up to light, and asking the questions about representation. Thank you to the research association 

Suoni ry

 , which seeks to advance musical practices and music research as a site for societal discussions. Thank you to the Swedish organisations 

KVAST

 and 

Konstmusiksystrar

 who have have had an enormous impact on that the Swedish music scene for the better. Thank you to every single person and organisation, who is working for a more equal concert music scene. Thank you! 

Very happy to this year be performed in an online concert by 

Den akademiska damkören Linnea

 conducted by the fantastic 

Merete Ellegaard

. This concert consists of compositions composed by both women AND men, just as it should be, today and also all other days of the year. We are in this together. 

The piece "hjärteblad" is the third movement of my cycle "Vidkänning", composed to amazing poems by 

Henrika Ringbom

 and can be heard at the very end of the concert (at 58:25 min). If you understand Swedish, I of course strongly recommend you to listen to the whole concert!

https://youtu.be/BKX6dUh9nc8?t=3504 

Composer Cecilia Damström. Photo by Marthe Veian 2017.