Midsummer Eve

After the 17h travel, finally getting home and having some warm food and a good night rest, it was already Friday the 21st of June, so midsummer’s eve. Midsummer is quite big in Finland, but every once celebrates it at their summer cottages, so there are “many small parties in the middle of nowhere” to put it frankly.

This year my family (and I) were invited to our friends midsummer party quite close to our summer cottage, so we went there by boat. (It rained and the waves splashed all the way so my eye make up had smeared it self all over my face and my “curls” all gone by the time we arrived…) We had a great dinner including salmon and mustard herring, “new potatoes” and ice cream with strawberries for dessert, Finnish summer delicatessen. My sister and I of course also performed some (pop) songs for the happy guests, and at 1 AM we drove home to a beautiful sunset.

Finnish New Potatoes, Midsummer 2014. © C.Damström

Not my plate but anyway; midsummer dinner 2014. © C.Damström

Strawberries and ice-cream for desert. Midsummer 2014. © C.Damström

Someone hoping on leftovers...
Midsummer 2014. © C.Damström

My sister Jacintha Damström and her friend Linda juggling while the neighbor dog watched.
Midsummer 21 June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Midsummer eve 21st June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Midsummer eve 21st June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Midsummer eve 21st June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Midsummer eve 21st June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

The 17h travel

The trip back was a great 17h trip. While walking through Stockholm to the boat I noticed how many homeless people there were sleeping in the streets. Suddenly bumped in to a gathering of people and beggars. I asked some one, who looked like he was in charge of the gathering what was going on, and he told me he every day went around to some restaurants and cafés and gathered all their leftovers and handed it out to the homeless. Because it actually is illegal in Sweden to hand out leftover, he did it at 5.30 before the police “was awake”! When he heard I was a composer he told me I should participate in the “Eurovision for homeless people” that will take place in October 2014 in Stockholm! Eurovision for homeless people, can you believe it?! He was so nice and told me to take some food as well (which made me happy as I had about 20 euro on my account at the time in total). So I got a good salad for free, which was my only food the whole day!

A few of the homeless people on the streets of Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

These two men were in charge of feeding the homeless of Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Bread for the homeless of Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Some homeless people in Stockholm gathered for getting some free bread.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

The sallad I was given for free in Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

On the ferry back to Finland, Viking Grace, I met an Australian back-packer called  Joshua Boyle. The first 4 hours we both spent sleeping (in chairs on the common area of the boat), but then I asked him if he could watch my bag while I went to tax-free (for buying a small plate of dairy free chocolate, as I counted that it would have the most calories that you can get for 2 euros, which will keep my hunger away for the longest, in addition to the salad). After that I and Josh talked without a break for the next 8 hours until we arrived in Turku, Finland. We of course became Facebook friends and he even came later on and visited me with his friends while driving home from Mongolia through Sweden in September, but that’s a different story.

Walking to the Viking Line ferry in Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Walking to the Viking Line ferry in Stockholm.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

View from the ferry Viking Line Grace.
20th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Joshua Boyle, my new friend from Australia.
June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Final Symphony Stockholm

On the 19th of June I flew to Stockholm for hearing the concert Final Symphony Stockholm. Two very close friends of mine, Jonne Valtonen and Roger Wanamo have written the arrangements of the Final Fantasy game music for symphony orchestra. The concept has become a hit among gamers all around the world, so they have had concerts with for instance London Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic , WDR Sinfonierchester and now for the third time The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. (Ironically it hasn’t until now been performed in Finland yet, but it will come in September to Tampere and be performed by the Tampere Philharmonic, the very same concert, but I will be in Malmö by then.) Even though they are really good friends of mine I have never before attended a concert their game music arrangements, so I decided that the time had finally come to go and listen, as the concert was so close by (in Stockholm).

Me with Stockholm in the background 19th of June 2014. Photo © Mari Pakarinen

Delicious raw food desserts at Hermans, Stockholm 19th of June 2014.
Photo © Cecilia Damström

Lunch with Mari Pakarinen at Hermans restaurant.
Stockholm 19th of June 2014.
Photo © Cecilia Damström 

Stockholm 19th of June 2014.
Photo © Cecilia Damström

So I bought a cheap Norwegian airways flight to Stockholm, arrived on the 19th of June early in the morning, had lunch with my friend Mari Pakarinen at the vegetarian restaurant Hermans, spent the day with my friends, attended the fantastic concert that was received with standing ovations (and three encores), hang out with my friends and the musicians at the after party and caught at 6.30 AM the boat back to Finland. 

Roger Wanamo and Jonne Valtonen at the concert pre-talk,
Stockholm 19th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Jonne Valtonen, Roger Wanamo and Mari Pakarinen at the Final Fantasy concert
Stockholm 19th of June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Vacation

In June I basically tried to have vacation, quite successfully. One friend from Helsinki visited me in Tampere, because he never had been to Tampere before even after living five years in Finland. We went to Pyynikinäkötorni, a observation tower on a hill in a small woods, from where you can see all of Tampere. And we also went to the Lenin museum, which is located in Tampereen Työväen Teatteri (“The Proletarian Theatre of Tampere”). In the very same building Stalin and Lenin actually met for the first time ever in 1905, and in the very same building we also have our composition classes! The Lenin museum was also very eye-opening; how visionarism can end very dangerously and very wrong, because humans love to follow a leader who is full of passion for an idea, almost independent on the idea it self.

Me on the top of Pyynikinnäkötorni June 2014.

In the middle of June I spent about a week at my parents summer cottage on the island, relaxing and also there a few friends came out and visited me, sometimes even just for lunch as it’s not far away from Helsinki.

A friend came for lunch to the island, June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

The island. June 2014. Photo © Cecilia Damström

Hitchhiking to Tampere

Thursday the 5th of June 2014. I have always wanted to try hitchhiking since I met my Polish friend Kasia Nowicka, who has hitchhiked around Iceland, through Finland to Lapland and back through Norway and Sweden, through Italy to Sicily and back through Greece and Macedonia to Poland! But when I told my parents that I wanted to go hitchhiking this summer they forbid me to do it, and because I respect my parents and understand how appalling it would be for them (and me) if something would happen I have given up that plan. Partly. I won’t hitchhike around Europe that is.

But now my friend and I are two moneyless students who wanted to come from Helsinki to Tampere on undetermined time on a sunny June morning, so we decided to try hitchhiking, as Finland is (quite) a safe country.

We chose the bus stop at the crossing where the Mannerheimintie ends and the motorway to Tampere begins. We had planned to meet as early as possible, but both of us were late, so we actually started hitchhiking first at about 9 AM, which is far to late because we had already missed all the people who were going to go to work in the morning from Helsinki to Tampere.

Preparing the sign... June 5th 2014.

We took turns at holding the sign and holding up the thumb. To both of our surprise it was actually quite straining to keep your thumb up for a long time, our right thumb and arm got quite sore from that. For about 45 minutes we waited and by the time that we were already getting a bit sunburnt FINALLY a car stopped! We at first didn’t even notice, before the driver honked at us.

Hitchhiking to Tampere 5th of June 2014.

The thing about hitchhiking that fascinates me so much is that you never know what kind of people you will meet. Also this time I was taken by surprise. The small car that had stopped for us was driven by a friendly woman in her late fifties, on her way to a garden party in Tampere. She had worked in a bank as a young girl, fallen in love with a taxi driver who often came to the bank, and then started working as a taxi driver her self. As a hobby she and her boyfriend (still the same one as when she was a young girl) had motorcycles and were going to drive through Germany during their vacation. And she was an absolutely excellent driver! She moreover was delighted to hear I spoke Swedish and asked if it was okay with me if she could practise her Swedish with me, and I was delighted by her enthusiasm. So all the two-hour drive we talked in Swedish about her travels and about motorcycles, because there were a lot of Harley-Davidsons driving in the opposite direction, which made her very excited. And we got a perfect ride all the way to the city centre of Tampere. A great experience!

Eight songs for a Mad King

Wednesday June 4th. Today is a historical day; The piece Eight songs for a mad king by Peter Maxwell Davies will be performed in Finland for the first time since 1991. I came with two friends all the way from Tampere to Helsinki for seeing this! (Okay my friends also had other appointments in Helsinki, but I didn’t!) The performance was at Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and the main part was sung by the counter tenor David Hackston. The performance was absolutely fantastic, and I absolutely love this piece of music! If you don’t know it, please watch it from the youtube video below.

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.