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Wednesday 29 July 2009

37th International Viola Congress in Stellenbosch, South Africa

By Sasha Mäkilä on Wednesday 29 July 2009, 14:38

Last Friday I arrived to Stellenbosch, SA after a 35-hour travel (including the 6-hour layover in London) from Aspen. After I had thrown my suitcase in the "gasthaus" I was off to conduct the first rehearsal, but to tell you the truth I felt a bit dizzy during it. Luckily I am one of those persons who are able to sleep on the plane, so I was more or less functioning nevertheless.

This morning we had the dress rehearsal for the first concert which is tonight. We perform three modern works for viola and orchestra. Tomorrow we will play a gala concert with four more "classical" works for viola.

Seven accompaniments, mostly unknown pieces and some world premieres, working with 8 different soloists and an amateur choir - that's plenty of work! Luckily the atmosphere in the rehearsals has been really positive and the organization has taken a very good care of us. The city of Stellenbosch is very beautiful and clean, the parts of the Cape I saw were really beautiful, and the people here are friendly and hospitable. I have really been enjoying my first trip to the African continent so far!

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Wednesday 22 July 2009

Aspen Music Festival and School

By Sasha Mäkilä on Wednesday 22 July 2009, 09:25

Aspen cellists
AACA cello section: Henry, Caroline, Daniel, Jae, me and Eric. The nicest cello section I've ever played in. And most fun!

I have been studying in Aspen already since June, but as I had suspected, our schedule is so busy that it is almost impossible to find time to update my blog. All I can say is that the program is great and varied, the surroundings (the nature!) are unbelievable, and the people I am working with are just fantastic guys and girls! At the end of the summer I will write a thorough post on Aspen, but until then I cannot promise anything more than occasional photo updates. Sorry folks and see you later!

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Monday 22 June 2009

Kurt Masur conducting Tonhalle Orchestra

By Sasha Mäkilä on Monday 22 June 2009, 06:59

tonhalleorkka
"This is one of the happiest days in my life..."

Two weeks ago I made a trip to Zürich to hear the famed Tonhalle orchestra. This summer I will study in Aspen with David Zinman, Tonhalle's music director, and I was really curious to see and hear what kind of an orchestra is it. An email to the orchestra office secured me a chance to see all the rehearsals and boy, what kind of rehearsals they were! The orchestra sounded great since the first rehearsal and Kurt Masur could make them sound even better.

masurviola
Maestro Masur and the principal viola Gilad Karni (ex NY Phil!)

The program was Mendelssohn's Italian symphony (No. 4) and Bruckner's fourth symphony. This is the kind of repertoire nobody can do as well as Masur. I simply love his style of rehearsing because he is never formal or technical. For me seeing him rehearse was the best master class on these works.

Some things he said I will never forget - like "don't be a violinist - be a lover!". He expects everyone to be a great musician and put life in those notes. And which orchestra would not want to hear what Masur said after the dress rehearsal: "This is one of the happiest days of my life!" It goes without saying that the concerts were great. Never before I have heard such a wonderful palette of sounds from the string section.

tonhallesali
The beautiful stage and organ of the Tonhalle

I also had some time to see Zürich and I visited the opera house too. They had Ariadne auf Naxos in the playbill, which is one of my favorite operas. BTW Daniele Gatti will be the next chief of the Zürich opera! Switzerland seems like a nice place to live - clean, orderly, public transport runs on time, mountains. lakes... I could enjoy it for a few days thanks to Timo who generously accommodated me in his Regensdorf studio!

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Wednesday 3 June 2009

Panula conducting competition participants announced

By Sasha Mäkilä on Wednesday 3 June 2009, 15:21

The 4th International Panula Conducting Competiton

 10.-13.11.2009 – 20 PARTICIPANTS & 3 RESERVES

Selection jury - Mr Jorma Panula - Mr Ulf Söderblom - Toby Hoffman

The selection jury has chosen following applicants to the competition:

20 participants

1. Andrea Cazzaniga, Spain

2. Cristian Orosanu, Romania

3. Huba Holloköi, Hungary

4. Johannes Klumpp, Germany

5. Francesco Lanzillotta, Italy

6. Maja Metelska, Poland

7. Rebecca Miller, United Kingdom

8. Yordan Kamdzhalov, Bulgaria

9. Luís Filipe Leal de Carvalho, Portugal

10. Andris Poga, Latvia

11. James Lowe, United Kingdom

12. Dalia Stasevska, Finland

13. Azan Zielinski Aurélien, France

14. Trond Husebø, Norway

15. Leo McFall, United Kingdom

16. Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Finland

17. Mârtiòð Ozoliòð, Latvia

18. Hansjörg (Hannes) Krämer, Germany

19. Adriel Donghyuk Kim, Austria

20. Federico Crisanaz, Italy

3 reserves

1. Mattia Rondelli, Italy

2. Elina Jukola, Finland

3. Kara Erika Koskinen, Finland

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Saturday 30 May 2009

Trying out Twitter @sashamakila

By Sasha Mäkilä on Saturday 30 May 2009, 18:41

I just set up a Twitter account which I intend to use while I am in Aspen this summer. I have heard the program at the American Academy of Conducting is so intense, that regular blogging might not be a valid option. So maybe "microblogging" would do the trick! Don't expect too many tweets before June 17th though. All that said, my Twitter account is sashamakila (or @sashamakila, however you like it better).

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