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Wednesday 14 November 2007

Off to another conducting competition

By Sasha Mäkilä on Wednesday 14 November 2007, 11:51

Next time I will be writing from Katowice, Poland, where I will be taking part to the 8th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Conducting Competition. The repertoire for that one is really big but consists of good mainstream repertoire plus some interesting Polish works. One could tour the world for a year just by combining those pieces into different concert programs!

I will meet a lot of friends in Katowice, whom I have met before in other competitions and master classes. I am really looking forward to some good time with them (in between studying, of course)! As for a couple of days I will have no pictures (I am still a beginner when it comes to uploading stuff to the net while I am abroad!) I will put here the pics I recently got from the organizers of the two previous competitions I took part in. Stay tuned!

These photos are from Zagreb (thanks Julijana!):

And these are from Luxembourg (thanks Anne!):

Svetlanov 2nd round 1 Svetlanov 2nd round 2

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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!

Saturday 26 May 2007

Leaving Luxembourg

By Sasha Mäkilä on Saturday 26 May 2007, 21:32

Deborah in the Finals

The final day of the competition is past. I did not make it to the finals, but my friend Roberto was awarded Third Prize. Congratulations! There was no First Prize unfortunately. The jury seemed not to know exactly what they wanted, since so many experienced conductors were voted out in the previous rounds. I am convinced there were conductors professional and worthy enough for the First Prize! But this is how it went this time...

How Ivan felt after the semi-final results...

The Orchestra Philharmonique de Luxembourg did a heroic job playing many big works in the finals without rehearsal. There was Firebird, Brahms 1st and 2nd symphonies, Brahms Haydn variations and last but not least Rahmaninov 2nd and 3rd symphonies! I want to congratulate and thank the orchestra and its wonderful players. Hope to see you in the future!


The Valley (photo by Ivan)

Now all that is left is to pack and leave Luxembourg behind! It is a beauty among cities I must say. I don't know when I will return, but the sooner the better!

P.S. The next competition will be in 2010!

Thursday 24 May 2007

Semi-finals starting...

By Sasha Mäkilä on Thursday 24 May 2007, 10:17

Yesterday was a happy day for me, since I passed to the second round of the competition here in Luxembourg. And not only me, but also my classmates Rober and Yuki and my friend Ivan! It is so nice to have so many friends in the competition - it somehow keeps the atmosphere nice and relaxed and it does not become a bloody battle... Of course it was a sad day to the eight young conductors who did not make it this time - including a few friends of mine as well. I feel sad for them, but this is how competitions are! C'est la vie!!!

Going to see the Grand Duke

The funny thing yesterday was, that we were granted an audience with the head of state, the Grand Duke Henry of Luxembourg! Today he will meet Vladimir Putin of Russia, so we were in good company! Unfortunately I have no photos from inside the palace, but you might guess the interior was royal!!! Grand Duke Henry was really nice to us and asked about our lives, the choice of profession etc. He is apparently really well educated in classical music, and is a regular concert goer (we also heard that opera is not among his favorite pastimes, and that he cannot digest music of Wagner).

Today I will later go and see some of the semi-finalists. At the moment my classmates Yuki and Rober are preparing to conduct. I will not see them but wish them best of luck!

P.S. I later received this newspaper article that appeared in La Voix of Luxembourg on the May 23rd. I was interviewed for this paper briefly right after my first round performance.

La_Voix_1_2.jpg La_Voix_2_2.jpg

Monday 21 May 2007

Svetlanov competition begins

By Sasha Mäkilä on Monday 21 May 2007, 19:43

Greetings from Luxembourg! A lot has happened during the past few days: I had a success on Friday in concert with Kari Kriikku and the State Hermitage Orchestra, on Saturday I conducted the first movement of La Mer for the Besancon pre-selection audition, and yesterday I traveled the whole day to Luxembourg.

Yukihiro and the Jury

The competition started today and I watched a couple of participants. It is very nicely organized and the orchestra is good. I have some friends here, too, my classmates Rober and Yuki, and Ivan whom I met in a couple of competitions, and Ben whom I met in New York last summer.

Roberto, Ivan and Ben

My turn to conduct will be tomorrow morning, so now I just relax and concentrate to that. I took some photos today, and I will add them to this page as soon as I am home!