Maria Finkelmeier

Just after our Solstormen tour in Australia, Jake, Charles, and I were in a rehearsal/meeting/hanging in the studio discussing what we could do as a final project in Piteå. Sadly, we will be moving to different ends of the world in July (but don't worry, we'll be working together as much as we can well into the future!) To get the ball rolling, we began brainstorming and throwing out ideas about what is unique about Northern Sweden (so many things!) The aurora bourealis was the inspiration for our winter projects, and what is the opposite of an extremely dark night?...a completely white one! The midnight sun is a beautiful natural occurrence, and we knew we needed to take advantage of it. With that thought, plus our love of composing and improvising, along with the popularity of John Luther Adams "Inuksuit" in our minds, we came up with an idea to travel around Northern Sweden (Norrbotten) and perform concerts outside, late at night..."under the midnight sun"!

I decided to take on the project at the director and primary organizer, mainly because I was really passionate about the idea and could picture exactly what I wanted with each concert. Additionally, my good friend, Angela, wanted to come over and collaborate with us, and I saw this as a perfect opportunity! 

So...research, writing, translating, brainstorming, and cold calls commenced! The planning and creating phase has gone through many, many ups and downs, but I am so proud of the final product. I am so thankful for the support from the Kommuns (community governments) and organizations that are making the tour possible. It will definitely be a special 4-day event that brings together 4 unique and inspiring places in Norrbotten. We'll be filming the entire tour, and blogging/tweeting the entire time (thanks to my awesome intern, Henrik!) 

Detailed infomation about each event can be found on my ensemble's website HERE. To book a ticket for the Treehotel event go HERE. There will also be some promotional ads and articles in each community that I will post as they come. 

I've tried my best to learn Swedish, and do use it on a daily basis (although most of my interactions are in English). However, when crossing the border into Finland, it is amazing to me that our neighboring country's language is completely different! 

Last weekend, Jake, Charles, Anna, and I made the 10-hour journey (by car) to Pori, Finland to give a concert and work with the students at the Palmgren Conservatory. About 7 years ago I attended the Nexus Summer Percussion Seminar in Toronto, Canada and met the members of the Finnish percussion group called Osuma. Then, when we planned our festival last year I reconnected with one of the members of the group, Toni Hietala. He brought over a van full of students and we had a great time here in Piteå. 

I've wanted to head over the border before leaving Piteå, so Toni and I worked out the visit! We arrived at 4am on Friday (yes, driving into the night...but luckily it never gets really dark!), and worked with the students on Friday afternoon. We performed an afternoon concert on Saturday, playing repertoire that is very special to us. We started with Charles' piece "a nice theory" (we were joined by the students and Janne, another member of Osuma), and then performed our 30-minute "Solstormen" Set. For something a bit different, Jake and I performed Casey's "Plato's Cave" and we ended with two songs with Anna ("it was the start of something new" by Jake and Anna, then Green's "Fluffy Ruffles"). We had a fantastic and enthusiastic audience, and got a great review in the paper (at least that's what Google Translate tells us!) On Sunday we gave a 4-hour masterclass to the students and had a great time teaching and giving them some new ideas! 

Pori was a great little town, and we enjoyed a lot of nice food and great company. Hopefully we can return to Finland at some point, but this was a nice first visit! Kiitos (thanks) for having us, Toni! 

It's amazing what a little sunshine can do! Even though it snowed (yes, snowed!) over the weekend, spring has arrived in Piteå and the days are getting noticeably longer. At 10pm it feels like 6pm, which means I'm up until 3am, and the sun wakes me up at about 6am. I just tell myself that the extra hours are perfect for being productive (or catching up on the Ellen Show...) 

I've spent the last week working really hard on finalizing our Midnight Sun Tour. I don't know if it's the sunshine or the fact that I'm accomplishing so much, but I am feeling great and am so excited for these performances! This week I have four more meetings (finalizing sponsors, logistics, and venues) before our 5-day trip to Finland to play at Pori-Palmgren Conservatory (more on that later). I am hoping to solidify the details of the tour and start publicizing early next week! Stay tuned! 

Here is a picture of the view from our apartment, at midnight in Piteå right now...in one month it will be amazing to perform some new music outside!!

I spent the last week in Vilnius, Lithuania with Jake and Charles for a really great festival calledThe Process. Two years ago, I attended an international coordinator's meeting for the Nordplus Network in Vilnius and met the Academy's coordinator, Rima. We hit it off right away, and started talking about a project that she produces. The Process invites student composers and lecturers from the Baltic and Scandinavian region to the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre for two weeks. The students attend lectures and receive individual lessons. They also invite two chamber groups to the second half of the festival to work the composers. Because of the great conversation Rima and I had two years ago, Ensemble Evolution was one of the groups chosen this year. We gave a workshop on writing for percussion, then spent 5 days working with the composers, and premiered the eight pieces in concert (and for a recording) on Saturday. It was exhausting, but very rewarding! Vilnius is a great town...had some nice food, experienced nice weather, hung with nice company, and made some nice contacts for future music making!  

(download)

Click here to download:

the-process-EyfJpBdrDhrrhfDxrDjJ.zip (24.8 MB)

I am so pleased to share some exciting news: I've confirmed a concert for Ensemble Evolution at the world-famous Tree Hotel!!! Just 2 hours north of Piteå lies one of the most innovative hotels in the world (along with the Ice Hotel, which is equally astounding.) The Tree Hotel was founded by and is now run by Kent and Britta Lindvell, who are lovely people and obvious supporters for culture and the arts. I contacted them last week about our "Midnattsolen Tour" idea, and met with them over the weekend. To my excitement, we've booked a concert! We'll be writing new pieces for each tree house, and perform them under/next to/in each one. 

I will have more information as the tour takes shape and details get confirmed. For now, my mind is racing with compositional ideas and visualizations of the event! 

More info: www.treehotel.se

(download)

Click here to download:

grown-up-tree-houses-mopddyjfuIIharvEuhds.zip (18.43 MB)

Jake and I are learning how to use Logic (the music editting tool) to edit and mix our duo recording! It's great to be able to work with recording ourselves, even though it may be taking a little more time than hiring someone. Here's to a few more late nights to get this album finished and ready for mastering and printing!! 

Trying out a new website host and design! Now, I can edit everything myself, and add more information...faster! Enjoy, and I would love your feedback!