Christopher U. Light Lectureship II: Music of Alex Freeman
The Concert Weekend in Review 1
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The event schedule began with Eva Alkula's arrival in Minnesota. Aino and I went up to St. Paul with her where she met Koivun Kaiku, a group of American kantele players/makers. She did a kind of workshop with them and we all sat around listening and playing kanteles. Alan and Betsey Norgard, of the Finlandia Foundation, arranged for us to go to the home of the renouned scholar, Joyce Hakala, for this little gathering. It was lots of fun and a great Ameri-Finn connection!
Brian Lee arrived on Thursday and gave a great masterclass to three of the Carleton College music major all-stars, Caitlin Schmid, Kevin Chau, and Sam Smith-Schull. All three played beautifully and all three found new dimensions in the works they presented--some Barber, Haydn, and Bach. Brian was dynamic, enthusiastic, and incisive.
The concert Friday went really well. All the performances were strong: Brian Lee breathed new life into my Three Pieces (memorized) and pretty much blew everyone away. And THAT on the heels of an outstanding performance of my Sonata. It was great to hear these pieces live again. Brian communicated every nuance of this solid 30 minutes of solo music, while making the big picture lucid to musicians and non-musicians alike. What can I say? He's an artist.
We followed this up with a short presentation about the kantele. I talked a little about the kantele and Kalevala, interviewed Eva a little, and then even sang and played a duet on the 5-string. It was a hoot and then Eva played Magnolia.
After a brief pause, a quartet with Hector Valdivia, David Carter, Nina Olsen, and Matt McCright played my Intermezzo, which was originally composed for the wedding of our dear friends Timo Sipilä and Sarah Schauss in Finland. We followed this up with a short demonstration and a performance of Blueshift, which I conducted.
