First Orchestral Rehearsal

Saturday the 3rd of May. Today has been a nice day once again. Had orchestra rehearsal in the morning with Tuomas Turriago conducting the orchestra I have put together for my song cycle and my dear sister Jacintha came from Helsinki for the rehearsal. Because all my musicians are doing this for free I at least had a good rehearsal coffee arranged: biscuits, coffee and tea and my friend Natalja from church had baked muffins for the rehearsal (simply because she is so nice) so I think the musicians (who all are super tired and stressed out at the moment because it is the end of the semester and everyone has exams coming up) were quite happy.

The afternoon I spend writing my thesis and in the evening I went with my friend Matilda to have dinner at a friends house at we had such a lovely evening all together.

Rehearsals and Thesis

Friday the 2nd of May. This day has once again been filled with so great events that I cannot describe how blessed I feel that I have the opportunity to be a composer, that I have so many friends who help me and that I am currently arranging my first own composition concert!

So the day began at 10 in the piano laboratory with a rehearsal together along with my pianist friend Tuomas Salokangas, who is going to premiere my piano etude “Psychedelic” next Wednesday at the composers’ concert. The piece is a 7 minute long study of the timbre and overtones of the piano, consisting only of two chords, c minor (tonic) and G major (dominant). Because it is such a long etude consisting of a lot of one-hand tremolos it is easily very tiring for the pianist and I was very anxious about how Tuomas was feeling about playing this piece. But he played it once through for me without difficulty and it sounded great! I expressed a few adjustments but that was about it.

 

Tuomas Salokangas playing my composition
Psychedelic for me. © Cecilia Damström

After this uplifting rehearsal I headed to the main building of the conservatory and on the way there I managed to call Harri Hautala, the main music critic of the biggest regional newspaper Aamulehti. I cheekily told him that I was organising my own composition concert including a choir, an orchestra and much more, all together over 60 musicians on stage and that this is the biggest musical event a pupil has ever organized alone so far at Tampere University of Applied Sciences. I added that the concert is for free and might interest the audience. He told me to email him directly to his personal email and he would get back to me in case he was interested. On one hand I was amazed by how bluntly brave I had been, but on the other hand I feel I did the right thing as it’s only a plus for the audience of Tampere to know about such a nice free concert!

After a quick lunch I headed off for the first rehearsal of my piece Flying high. Flying high was performed in Tampere Biennale 2012 but now all the musicians are new and we will only have three rehearsals before the concert, so I will be conducting. Or conducting isn’t quite appropriate word for what I’m doing; My main task is to be a metronome. The piece will, at my concert (14.5), be performed by my friends Piia Rytkönen (soprano and jouhikko), Jenni Halonen (flute), Heikki Pöyhönen (oboe), Andreas Heino (clarinet and bass clarinet) and Taina Raittila (cello). The rehearsal went really well for being a first rehearsal, so I was very happy about that!

After the rehearsal I had planned to listen to my trumpetist friend Mari Pakarinens’ final trumpet exam (B-exam) for bachelors. Unfortunately our rehearsal ended so late so I only heard the last piece through the door but it sounded great! She has advanced so much in the last three years, I’m so proud of my dear ex-flatmate! She obviously got full points, a 5/5 for her exam.

After spending some time on correcting the questionnaire for my thesis I met up with my friend from church Natalja Pfeifer and her parents, whom are visiting from Germany for a few days. Her father is a cantor and Natalja has been telling them on skype about all my concerts she has been attending. Natalja’s parents were very nice and her father gave me this amazing CD of contemporary cello pieces, which is great, as I am planning on writing my cello sonata this upcoming summer!

At home I started seriously stressing out about my thesis. As my thesis is a comparative study of the study plan in composition at three different universities I had to hand out a questionnaire to the three universities. I have already handed out the questionnaire to the pupils at the Conservatory of Valencia, and got back 10 answers, which is enough. But I still haven’t handed out the questionnaire to the Finnish universities and it struck me that I HAVE to send out the questionnaire by tomorrow if I want to have ANY chance of finishing my thesis by next week, Friday 9th of May!

So I called my dear friend Matilda, all desperate, at 12 AM and asked if she could correct my questionnaire in Finnish as soon as possible, and she replied “I’m at the composition studio, come here, I’ll do it at once.” What a saving angel! So on Friday eve at 00.30 I arrived at the composition studio and Matilda first spent about an hour reading through all the questions (it’s a 6 page long questionnaire) and then spent another 20 minutes answering it! It’s unbelievable that I am so lucky to have a friend like this! (If this were a Facebook status I would add the mood “feeling blessed”!)

Matilda helping me with my thesis in the middle of the  night on a Friday!

Vappu Day

Thursday first of May, Vappu day. Woke up very late. Only had time for lunch before I already headed back to Tampere Hall for handing out flyers after another Tampere phil concert. Today the audience was more reluctant than ever towards the flyers.

I had a good intention of actually going home and writing my thesis, because I have to give it in on the 9th of May. But before I knew it a friend of mine had already bought me a drink from the Tampere Hall.

Today I met Anton Chausovskii, the alternate concertmaster of Tampere Philharmonic. He is originally from Russia and has worked several years in Pori Sinfonietta, so I asked him how he liked living in Finland. He said he was very happy with the cultural life in Finland, which he finds is very active and well working. He also told me he was looking for new solo violin pieces and I told him I am at the moment writing a piece for solo violin which I would love to have performed (once it's ready), so I said I would send him a score when I'm done.

I, who was supposed to go home and write my thesis after handing out flyers, found myself eating dinner at Telakka with a friend and afterwards, once again, dropping by Annika’s place, though this time already at around 19 o'clock. It was cold outside (about + 8°C) but we were brave Finns and grilled sausages, chicken and halloumi cheese outside, simply because we could! I just ate salad, so I got quite cold and went home quite early (around 23 o’clock).

Vappu Eve

Wednesday April 30th, Vappu eve. First of May (Vappu in Finnish) is a National holiday, so the evening before (today) is maybe THE biggest party in Finland (Yes, bigger than New Years Eve or Independence Day, maybe because both of them happen to be in Winter when it’s freezing in Finland…)!

Anyway, my day began at 9 AM with my final exam in score reading. I had two hours time to learn this wonderful extract from Wagners Tristan and Isolde, I really enjoyed my two hours practising for the exam! After two hours my teacher Tero Lanu came and I played my Wagner once for him. Then he gave me a sight reading task: a non tonal piece in three voices of which one was a transposing clarinet and the other was a bassoon which occasionally changed to C-clef! It was an absolutely horrible sight reading task and I thought I did awfully! But Lanu said “Oh well, it was quite a hard task, and your Wagner was very good, so you get a 5/5 anyway.” So I am very happy!

After my exam I had lunch and then headed to Pyynikkisali to listen to the TEMA-quartet play Shostakovitch. This concert was a chamber music exam of my friend and viola player Marjukka Manners. Naturally I enjoyed the performance, because I LOVE Shostakovich!
After this I went home and had to take a nap, before I headed off to Tampere Hall. Both Vappu concerts (30.4 and 1.5) are completely sold out, so I came just in time when the concert ended and stood again by the door and handed out flyers to my upcoming composition concert on the 14th of May. Today it was a lot colder than the last time I was handing out flyers, and the audience today wasn’t quite as happy to get flyers as they were last Friday…
After the audience had left I went and sat for a while with my friends from the Tampere Phil on the terrace of Tampere Hall, but when the sun was gone it was so freezing that most of us hurried to the bar & restaurant Telakka. At 1 AM I was so tired and honestly had the intention of going home, but I called Matilda, who was at a house party, which happened to be located just on my way home, so I dropped by there for a couple of hours as well.

Found this inspiring phrases at Annikas place.
"Remember: Water the flowers, do the laundry,
save the world, bring aways the rubbish. Loesje"

Accepted for Masters at Malmö!

I got an email: I WAS ACCEPTED FOR MASTERS AT MALMÖ SCHOOL OF MUSIC!!! YAAAAY!!! I have accepted the place but I’m not 100% sure yet what I will do next autumn, so I will first wait for the results from the other schools (Gothenburg, Helsinki and Berlin) before I make any definite decisions… But the fact that Malmö has FIVE different ORCHESTRAS that play the pieces of their students is simply so incredible that it makes Malmö the most attractive alternative at the moment… And also the fact that I liked the school immediately and loved the city! I think intuition is something that shouldn’t be underestimated! So happy!

Clicking online for accepting my place at Malmö School of Music!

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!