G.P.

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!

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.

Jolly bassoon players...

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.

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...

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