A successfull weekend in Time of Music

Saturday started with a seminar on modern choral music, after which a concert by Ensemble Adapter was heard. The German-Islandic ensemble’s pieces were mostly Scandinavian. Especially Islandic composers’, Gunnarsson & Einarsson’s, pieces were noteworthy with their unique and original style.

Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus presented Japanese music, with a bit more traditional style, but the more contemporary R. Murray Schafer’s “The Myth of Narcissus and Echo” stood out as the main piece of the concert. Schafer’s piece was performed with the use of different elements of the concert place, such as echos and space, so that various tones were clearly recognisable. The last concert of the day, Mikrophonie, involved e.g. Riikka Talvitie’s arrangement of George Brecht’s piece “Comb Music”. In it, the audience got to make the music itself, with the help of the advice from the composer and two instructors, playing as an example on the stage.

Sunday’s Closing concert of the Improvisation Course was united with the spatialized improvisation work “IRTI!” (Off!) of students and teachers of the Viitasaari Music School. After this Ensemble Adapter performed newly completed compositions of young composers from the composition course at the festival.

Seminaarinmäen mieslaulajat held the last concert of the festival with fun and theatrical show. According to the first estimations, the festival’s attendance reached a total audience of ca. 3000 people.