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Thursday 19 July 2007

Blog cleaning day

By Sasha Mäkilä on Thursday 19 July 2007, 20:32

Today I had time to do some updates and maintenance to my blog diary. In the Luxembourg section I added a newspaper clip about the competition, which I received today (thanks Anne!). In addition I put the photos of my concert in St Petersburg to the "right place" chronologically, as well as the poster pics which I had time to take just now. Otherwise the cleaning has been just cosmetical... I am also hoping to get adding some more pictures from Hot Springs to that section. Thanks for the pics Andrew!

Aside from that I am thinking of how to make my blog more interactive. Of course it essentially is a travel diary, but I would not mind getting some responses from my colleagues and other people interested in conducting and orchestras. So if you have any ideas how to make it more interesting, I will be glad to try them out!

Sunday 17 June 2007

Music festival has ended

By Sasha Mäkilä on Sunday 17 June 2007, 23:37

Last night we had the final concert of the Hot Springs Music Festival. The orchestra played Ma Vlast (Moldau) by Bedrich Smetana, An die schönen blauen Donau by Johann Strauss, and the 8th symphony of Antonin Dvorak. The orchestra, consisting of music students and their mentors, did a great job! Especially the brass was shining that night, much to thanks to inspiring coaching by the trumpet mentor Scott Moore.

Festival Horns The Festival Horns! Photo by A.S.

Besides the concert, I had to witness one remarkable trait of American character. The festival runs mostly on the donations made by private citizens, and before the concert it was announced that there is a "grant challenge" of 5000 USD made by one donor, and for the festival to get it, the audience should be able to match it by their collective donations during the 2 festival weeks. The challenge was short of only something like 500 bucks from the goal, but during that one intermission the audience came up with 4000 USD in donations! Four thousand!!! That means that every member of the audience contributed by something like 10 dollars average. This kind of generosity and supportive spirit I would like to see in Finland also!!!

Willie and Beth Festival players Willie (viola) and Beth (violin). Photo by A.S.

After the concert we of course had a little party and said goodbye to those friends who were leaving already by night. I also sorted some orchestral parts with Case and Dana (the other two conducting students), but that job (which we were asked to reserve two whole days) was finished in half an hour! So that means that for next two days I will just spend sitting on my thumbs in the quiet little town of Hot Springs! Now that the festival is over it seems there is absolutely nothing to do here! Luckily I have three books with me, so I will probably just rest and read and gather forces for the homeward journey...

Andrew and Sasha
Me and Andrew. Photo by A.S.

Thursday 14 June 2007

Hot Weather in Hot Springs

By Sasha Mäkilä on Thursday 14 June 2007, 15:39

Hot Springs banner
The Festival Banner. Photo by A.S.

I have spent already two weeks in Hot Springs, Arkansas. They have a nice little music festival here, and I am assisting the music director (Richard Rosenberg) with two other young conductors, Case Scaglione and Dana Sadava. There is a lot going on, orchestral and chamber music concerts going on every day, and the players have all the time rehearsals or master classes. Just the need for assistant conductors seems to be overestimated. The job would be perfect for one assistant, but for three it is too little to do, especially since the town itself does not offer much entertainment...

Conducting the Hot Springs Music Festival orchestra

Yesterday we had a nice orchestra concert, which I opened with Rossini's overture to "La Cenerentola". After that we accompanied 8 (!) students taking turns playing the Vivaldi's Four Seasons, after which maestro Rosenberg conducted the original version of Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. The locals really seem to appreciate their festival, the venue (Fieldhouse) was packed almost full!

Andrew__Laura__Richard.jpg Andrew Soli with Laura and Richard Rosenberg. Photo by A.S.