G.P.

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Sunday 11 May 2008

One Year of Blogging - Happy Birthday!

It has been exactly one year and one day of blogging today! Have I achieved anything? According to the statistics collected by my gandi.net page I get approximately a hundred hits per day - sometimes less, sometimes more - especially if I am writing from some competition. I think for a photo journal made by a non-photo-journalist (or a photo-non-journalist) it is quite a nice achievement! Especially as conducting as a profession is so marginal and concerns so few people.

Search Engine Hits

I would like to reveal some more statistics and draw some conclusions based on them. According to the Google search strings leading to a click on my page the absolute majority of my readers are people interested in conducting competitions. After the general search "conducting competition" the runners-up were "Fitelberg competition", Matacic competition" and "Svetlanov competition". That is no surprise, since my page was the best source of information in the net for those competitions after their own homepages. I will try to keep up the good work in the future!

Most Popular Posts

The most popular posts on my blog did not present a surprise either. Here are the top five:

10 Reasons Why You Should Participate in Conducting Competitions

Conducting the Music School Orchestra - 3 Pros, 4 Cons and 5 Ways to Make the Most of It!

Orchestra conductors and eyesight

Conducting Basics by Yuri Simonov

Playing musical chairs in Finland

The first three are fairly obvious, because of all the posts I wrote they come closest to the "traditional" blog entry in the sense that they were not purely personal but tried to be informative as well as enterteining. The fourth, a collection of "conducting wisdom" by Yuri Simonov is popular because "conducting basics" is the next most popular search coming to my blog after the competition searches. I hope all the seekers also ended up finding something for themselves... The last one became popular because it was quoted in the discussion forum of the main Finnish newspaper.

As a conclusion I hope to be more useful to my readers and whenever there is no concerts or competitions going on I will try to write more "mainstream" entries about music in general and conducting in particular. I of course would love to get feedback from you! If you are pondering a question about conducting ask me - maybe I am able to shed some light into it!

Friday 2 May 2008

ONF US Tour News Watch

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The Orchestre National de France is now touring US. Here some reviews I found in the net. Wish I was there with you guys!

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2008/04/30/a_master_performance_decades_in_the_making/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042902881.html

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/04/masur-and-orchestre-national-de-france.html

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/peter_dobrin/20080501_Visiting_maestro_stands_flat_and_rises_above.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/arts/music/02nati.html?ref=music

http://www2.nysun.com/article/75763

Thursday 1 May 2008

Mayday Mayday Mayday!

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Today I had a surprise "return to my roots" as a conductor - I conducted "Korson Työväen Soittokunta" wind band for the May Day festivities back here in Finland! I used to play alto sax in this band as a hobby (you might be able to spot me in the pic above), so it was fun to return to conduct them after a long while. And I also received my first conducting lessons at a band camp in Tampere, from conductor Hannu Norjanen. The whole conducting thing for me started from wind band music although my main instrument was and is violoncello!

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Too bad I did not have my camera with me to immortalize that fun event! We even had a famous Finnish rocker Jussi Raittinen jump in and play percussion in the section! But I do have some pictures from my last visit to Paris, so here you are...

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My work place in Paris (that round building) as seen from the Eiffel tower

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My friend Ludovic with piano soloist David Fray

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"Oh, do I see my name there? I really have to work this week???"

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First of the two concerts was a charity gala for Amnesty International

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In the Théatre des Champs-Elysées you even have to tip the ushers!

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Maestro Masur conducting Tchaikovsky

The New York Times reviewed the second concert before the ONF and Masur embarked on a US tour.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Paris - Moscow - Mikkeli

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During past days I have been traveling so much that there was no way to update my blog, sorry! What happened is worth telling anyway: After I returned to Paris from Jyväskylä I was just spending my time with some friends at the Cité des Arts and elsewhere, and attending the rehearsals at the ONF. I was planning to go to Moscow for the following week to meet Yuri Simonov, the chief conductor of the Moscow Phil, and follow his rehearsals and concerts.

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A call from Mikkeli changed my plans suddenly - Daniel Raiskin had cancelled his concert with the St Michel Strings and they needed a replacement fast! As I had already bought my flight ticket to Moscow I decided to go there first and meet maestro Simonov, and then take a train right away to Finland.

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Maestro Simonov after the tutti rehearsal

So, in Moscow I spent one day following the rehearsals of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Simonov is one of the toughest repetiteurs around: He started the day with one-hour wind sectional, correcting every wrong rhythm and unclear intonation on the spot. After that there was a tutti rehearsal followed by sectional for violins conducted by him, while his assistants led the rehearsals for violas, cellos and basses. Very efficient way of working I must say!

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The famous Mikaeli concert hall, where many good recordings are made

From Moscow I took a night train to Finland, and after picking up the scores that were mailed to me I took a train to Mikkeli. There I started to rehearse a program on Monday morning. On Tuesday we were joined by our soloist Thomas Bloch from Paris, who plays rare instruments Ondes Martenot, Glass Harmonica and Crystal Baschet. In this concert he was playing the Glass Harmonica (which by the way is invented by the USA Founding Father Benjamin Franklin). The local newspaper made a nice story about us before the concert (in Finnish).

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My glass harmonica soloist Thomas Bloch

The surprise work week squeezed all the juices out of me so I am still in Finland, resting... In a couple of days I will be back in Paris to assist Maestro Masur in a program of Dutilleux and Tchaikovsky.

Saturday 22 March 2008

Concert at the Annual Clinic of Finnish Wind Music in Jyväskylä

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This week I spent in Jyväskylä, where I was invited to conduct the concert in connection with the Annual Clinic of Finnish Wind Music. Our concert started the weekend full of wind concerts, lectures and meetings for wind players. We had of course a wind soloist, the saxophonist Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo, with whom I performed the Kalevi Aho's 3rd Chamber Symphony already for the fourth time!

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This Kalevi Aho piece is extremely demanding to the string players, so we spent approximately half of each rehearsal rehearsing it. At the meantime the wind players could rehearse Gounod's "Petite Symphonie" which they performed in concert without conductor.

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Jolly bassoon players...

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Other pieces in the concert were John Cowell's "Air and Scherzo" for saxophone and chamber orchestra, and Mozart's symphony No.33 which is one of my favorites.

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The orchestra's chief conductor is the famous French flutist Patrick Gallois, who now has made Finland his primary residence. What an unlikely choice of climate! I, on the other hand, am enjoying a lot the mild French weather for a change...

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Dress rehearsal at the theatre Allonen_ja_Makila.jpg
After a successful concert with intendent Lasse Allonen Jamit_Popparissa.jpg
Jam session at the local jazz club OP_Popparissa.jpg
Saxophone soloist O-P Tuomisalo relaxing. On his left the composer Kalevi Aho

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