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Friday 24 August 2007

Leonid Korchmar master class, day 1/5

By Sasha Mäkilä on Friday 24 August 2007, 22:56

The first master class day is over, and I am really happy and relieved that everything went well. After all this is the first time I am organizing a master class! Our teacher, professor Leonid Korchmar, was in a very good teaching mood and all the students definitely got a lot to think after their first lessons.

This course is not with an orchestra, but with two pianos (and two excellent pianists, Jari and Taru), and the emphasis is on the conducting technique. I wanted to give a possibility to conducting students in Helsinki to have a glimpse of the Russian way of conducting and at the same time widen their gestural vocabulary. The repertoire is Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Beethoven, Wagner and so on. All good music, full of good exercise material...

I did not especially shine on the podium today, since I was all the time worried about all the non-musical stuff I was responsible of during the day. Anyway I guess I was worried for nothing, since the scheduling and everything else worked fine! Everyone was just exhausted after the day, since the weather in Helsinki is really hot and humid at the moment. Tomorrow more news and hopefully some photos too!

Wednesday 22 August 2007

Master class of Leonid Korchmar - an introduction

By Sasha Mäkilä on Wednesday 22 August 2007, 08:33

Tomorrow my old teacher from St Petersburg Conservatory, Leonid Korchmar will arrive to Finland to teach on a master class organized by me. I have been toying with this idea ever since I moved back to Finland from St Petersburg, but only now I had enough contacts, enough free time and enough willpover to push through with this project.

I have gathered a group of open-minded conductors and conducting students who are curious enough to take a look at the Russian school of conducting. Or "one Russian school of conducting" would probably be a better description, since many schools coexist in Russia, most of them good or at least highly interesting.

What is so special about the so-called "Russian school of conducting"? I think the remarkable characteristic of Russian musicians is their scientific approach towards mastering their instrument. For example, Russians took the violin, an Italian instrument, and looked very carefully at how to perfect the technique of playing this instrument. And see - they have generally the very best school of string playing in the whole world (and yes, the teachers of the great violin players these days coming from Korea and China either are Russian or studied in Soviet Union)! The same thing they succeeded in doing with piano playing!

Now, conducting is totally a different matter, since there is no physical instrument to play on. But nevertheless several Russian teachers tried to codify the technique of influencing this human instrument. And they paid great attention to the fact that this instrument is very sensitive to subtle emotional and psychological impulses.

There are other "conducting systems" too, of course, but somehow they all fail to give the whole picture of conducting. So many times the conducting books are either traffic policing manuals or simply consist of a bag of tricks without underlying basis for technique. I have studied conducting in three countries and done several master classes in different parts of the world, and met so many conductors from all over the world during competitions that I can say with confidence: The Russian schools of conducting produce the most even output of professional and technically solid conductors. Why can't the West compete in this field? I have my opinions on that, but let's discuss it some other time!

Monday 6 August 2007

Hausmusikwoche in Järvenpää 30.7.-5.8.

By Sasha Mäkilä on Monday 6 August 2007, 14:36

Past seven days I have spent in Järvenpää, a small town in southern Finland where our most famous composer Jean Sibelius lived. I took part as a teacher to a very popular family music camp, "Kotimusiikkiviikko" (Hausmusikwoche in original German), which has been around for more than 50 years already. The idea of the camp came from Germany, where there is a long tradition of making "home music", but this camp is one of its kind in Finland.

I was conducting two orchestras during the camp, one for little children who just have learned to read music, and a chamber orchestra for bigger kids and their parents - with more ambitious repertoire of course. With the chamber orchestra we played some pieces by Sibelius and a Händel Concerto Grosso.

Hupikonsertti
Fun concert with kids dressed as animals (photo by Rauha)

Besides orchestras and choirs there are many more instrumental ensembles and children's music groups. Private tuition is available for all string instruments, guitar, flute, recorder, clarinet and singing. There are concerts every night. On the second last day of the camp there is a "fun night" with people dressed in crazy costumes and performing funny stuff late into the night!

Sibeliuksen haudalla
At the grave of the Master (photo by Rauha)

On the camp there is also a tradition of taking a walk to the grave of Jean Sibelius and performing his Andante Festivo for strings and singing the hymn from tone poem Finlandia at the grave. Sibelius is buried on his home yard in Ainola, and the place is practically in a forest! He wanted to live surrounded by the Finnish nature and get inspiration from it! It is always a memorable moment to conduct at that holy site.

For some time I have tried to reduce my educational activities, but this camp is one that I would like to keep in my diary for years to come. The atmosphere there is unique, with parents and children making music side by side, and with the teachers totally dedicated to their work - most of them have been returning to the camp more than ten years already!

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