Life on the Road

From the moment I hopped off the plane in January, I knew I was in for a busy spring semester. These past few months have taken me to all corners of Finland and surrounding countries, and it has been an incredible (and admittedly very exhausting) adventure. Here is my long-awaited summary of my crazy spring in Finland.

After our weekend in Stockholm, I hopped off the plane and onto a bus to Rantasalmi, where Chris and I enjoyed a lovely weekend skiing with the Ikonen family. There was still plenty of snow in eastern Finland, so we spent an entire day on groomed ski paths winding through the forest. Halfway into our excursion, we stopped near a tower to eat some makkara (big nasty hot dogs…Minnesotans, think “Dome Dogs” from the stadium-formerly-known-as-the-Metrodome) and snacks. Climbing up the old wooden tower was not for the faint of heart, but we did it and got to see some beautiful views of the dense forests and rolling hills of eastern Finland. After having been to Rantasalmi in the fall and winter (soon I will be going there in early May), I have to admit that eastern Finland is one of the most beautiful parts of the country. It was a great weekend spent with awesome friends!

Then I went from bus to train…Onward to Lappeenranta, where a military base and the Finnish Dragoon Band is located some 30 miles from the Russian border. Working with the military band was one of my best academic experiences in Finland. For some reason, it was the most confident and successful I felt on the podium all year, and the band and I really connected on a musical and professional level. One highlight was getting a bunch of (allegedly) grumpy Finnish military musicians to laugh and play with more spirit after a joke about drunken revelry (I’m sure they laughed out of politeness and not their first-hand experiences in such matters…). All jokes aside, we prepared Johan Svendsen’s “Norwegian Artist’s Carnival” for an excellent performance in a beautiful 18th century wooden church for a nice sized audience!

The week also brought a few extra activities and surprises. First, we got to see a former Sibelius Academy conducting student in action as she hosted us in her youth conducting class. She took it upon herself to start a beginner conducting class at the Lappeenranta music school to get young students interested in conducting. The students were all about high school aged, and they were super friendly and excited to learn. What an awesome idea! The surprise of the week was this: the king and queen of Sweden were, for some reason, visiting Lappeenranta while we were staying there! My Finnish classmates were not very enthusiastic about seeing a kings and queens (no love for monarchies here), but my Danish teacher, Peter (still enjoying the monarchy in Denmark), joined me and the masses of Lappeenranta folk to greet the Swedish royalty. How often does an American get to see a king and queen, anyway! An extra bonus to that week was a side trip to Helsinki, where I played the subcontrabass saxophone in the Helsinki Saxophone Orchestra’s 25-years concert. That saxophone is a beast! Phew, what a week…Can I go home now?

…Nope! When the Lappeenranta week ended, I took a surprisingly scenic bus ride to Jyväskylä through the forests of eastern/central Finland (also known as the middle of nowhere). It was Chris’s last weekend in Finland, and I wanted to spend time with him and help him pack. The weekend was far from relaxing, but still very fun. There were many Fulbrighters in Jyväskylä that weekend, as there was a seminar there from Thursday-Friday. As a result, we hung out with friends for dinner, drinks, coffee, a trip to the Panda chocolate factory…so many activities! Despite all that, Chris and I were able to enjoy a couple home-cooked meals and a relaxing trip to the sauna. It was definitely bittersweet to say goodbye to life in Jyväskylä.

After a short two days of class at the Sibelius Academy, Chris came down for his final day in Finland. While it wasn’t necessarily a day that either of us were looking forward to, it turned out to be a beautiful and glorious day. It as the first sunny and mild day since October, and the city of Helsinki was coming out of hibernation. People helped others into tram cars, chameleon-ed themselves into the cozy nooks in the rocks by the beach to sneekily read a book in the sunshine, and I almost saw a Finn smiling…Seriously, though, there was a huge shift in energy going on in the city, and it was a fantastic day to be outside and explore the parks, beaches, and shipyards of Helsinki. We stopped often for snacks and coffee (and maybe a beer or two), and snuggled inside with some delicious pizza for dinner.

And just like that, Chris was gone and I was off to Espoo for the Finnish version of the Midwest Clinic. I played in a concert with the Sibelius Academy Winds and met with a lot of friends and colleagues in the wind music world. Though my heart was only halfway there, it was healthy to be around wonderful people and play some music while coping with Chris’s move back to Minnesota.

And I had to keep my head in the game, because less than a week after Chris left our class hosted Captain Michelle Rakers from the President’s Own Marines Band (no pressure). It was so great to work with such an incredible conductor and insightful person!

Before I had time to process all of that, though, I was off to western Finland to conduct in an honor band in Huittinen. Rehearsals were from 6:00-9:00 on Friday night, 10:00-8:00 on Saturday, and 10:00-3:30 on Sunday (concert included). Wow! The students were really attentive, enthusiastic, and musical. They were mostly farm kids who just happened to love playing music in a band, and they reminded me a ton of the Pine City students. Needless to say, it was an awesome time!

Because I apparently hate sleeping in my own bed, I planned a tour of music schools in western Finland right after the Huittinen weekend. I visited Rauma, a beautiful historical town on the western coast of Finland with a HUGE band tradition, and I also visited the music conservatory in Turku. It was great to see how other schools in Finland ran their music schools and explore the beautiful Old Town of Rauma and jog along the river in Turku. While the countryside is more flat and boring in western Finland, the towns are very old and quaint. It was a worthwhile adventure!

I had a few days to crash at home before giving a 40 minute presentation about competitive marching bands in the US for the 2nd “American Voices Seminar.” The seminar was for English language teachers in Finland, and they were really enthusiastic about my presentation…Because marching band and drum corps are awesome!

After the seminar weekend I immediately started our final project at the Sibelius Academy: the Korvat Auki concert. Korvat Auki is an association of young composers in Finland, and our class collaborated with them to arrange a concert of new music for wind band. It was a really cool project, and I absolutely loved the piece I was assigned. It was awesome to work with a composer in real time to prepare for a concert. Usually, the composer of the score you are studying is somewhere far away (or dead), so the conductor has to guess what the composer’s intentions and visions were for the music. Now there was no room for misinterpretation! It was an excellent experience.

In mid-April I had a week off. Why relax at home when I could enjoy life on the road some more?? A couple of Fulbrighters and I had discussed a trip to the country that had ruled Finland until 1917: Russia. You can travel to Russia visa-free by taking the ferry from Helsinki to St. Petersburg and staying in the city for no more than 72 hours. Sounds exciting! …So we did it. I saw my first opera (Spartacus) at the Mariinsky Theater, oggled over the splendors of the Hermitage, explored St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Church on the Spilled Blood, and walked around the streets of Classically-styled old St. Petersburg. The city was crowded and busy, but the main tourist areas were quite clean and safe. We weren’t daring enough to get a glimpse of the rest of the city, which was probably a good call. The language gap in Russia is much more intense than in Finland, and none of us spoke Russian. The restaurants we went in worked fine for English-speaking tourists, but in some of the bakeries we had to simply point and gesture at what we wanted. It was exotic enough for a short trip, and it made me really curious to learn more about Russia. That’s one of the best phenomena of traveling: sparking curiosity. I would definitely consider going back to Russia again and seeing a bigger picture of the country (beyond just the touristy areas), but preferably with someone who speaks the language!

Now our final week of class has officially ended. We went to the Tikkakoski Air Force base to work with the Air Force jazz band. It was a cool way to end the year–what an excellent group! Can you imagine a conducting master’s class at an American University simply getting to spend a week with the Airmen of Note or the Marines Band? Well, that’s one of the luxuries of studying in a small country with a huge appreciation for music!

Next up is a Vappu week. May 1st is Labor Day in Finland, and it is a HUGE celebration, especially if the weather is nice. Not to worry, I still have MANY more days on the road and stories to tell before I fly home in the summer.

(NOTE: I could not get my pictures to upload in this post, but I will try again soon in a separate post!).