Old Town School - On The Road
Dispatches from the road from our wayfaring travelers.
More From Barbie From Finland
It was hectic, trying and oddly fun to get to London on Sunday, a scurry to take the Metro to the cross-country train, then the cross-country train to the tube to Heathrow, all the while dragging our luggage carts, nearly sprinting at times, and still missing our flight.
We carted all our luggage back to the heart of London by tube again to a nice hotel with lavish rooms and abundant English breakfast, and spent Monday morning at the British Museum right down the block. Incredible collections of stuff, the Rosetta Stone, exhibits from Greece, Egypt, Africa, Asia, too much to describe.
Monday afternoon we finally flew across the North and Baltic Seas over Denmark, part of Sweden and then into Helsinki for delicious fresh salmon and reindeer meat!
We arrived Tuesday morning at the Sibelius Academy to discover that our hostess and planner Riita Lissa was in the hospital. So other staff members at Sibelius took up the slack, helped us find our workshops, loaned us guitars, let us sit in on their classes and play music with them. Beautifully rendered traditional Finnish music, some of it a thousand years old, some a hundred, and even some Andy Statman klezmer stuff.
We taught own offerings including hip hop/house and clogging, and danced the hambo with Antii, their gregarious dance instructor. Then all of us went across the bay to Espoo to a hundred and fifty year old building for the most intimate concert by world famous Maria Kalaniemi the accordian player, plus a second act by a traditional Finnish quartet in full costume. Delightful music.
I taught a vocal workshop at the Sibelius Academy Wednesday morning, an Appalachian ballad, a Delmore brothers blues, and a gospel 3 part harmony rouser, while Maria instructed fiddle and Boogie more hip hop, and Joe spent the entire day jamming with other harmonica players at the Academy, one of whom he already knew well.
Took the most wonderful afternoon walk around Helsinki with Robert. First we headed north along a big boulevard that leads to some city parks and the Sibelius sculpture, a giant windchime in his honor, stark and modern against the backdrop of one of the many harbors that touch the town. A few blocks east we found a little cafe for coffee and pastries, then turned down the main boulevard past tourist shops to the town center featuring the Parliament building, the post office, the railway station, the bustle of a big city.
Wednesday night’s concert included our new friend Olli Varis — he tours with Maria Kalaniemi, the best known folk artist in Finland, but in addition he has this very well known quartet Trepaanit composed of guitar, bowed harp, mandolin, busuki. Innovative, moody music, delicately and masterfully arranged.
But the show of shows on this trip was the women’s vocal septet singing music of Finland, Karelia, Estonia, and more. Their performance was a powerful and exquisite crafting of singing, sound effects, movement and even dance, anguised at moments, joyous at others, too rich and varied to capture in words. We would love to have them visit Chicago. Then we feasted on a wonderful dinner paid for by the Sibelius Academy people at a famous deco-style restaurant frequented by artists and musicians.
The flights home were stretched over a 32-hour day when you sum it up, as Helsinki is 8 hours ahead of us. Plenty of time to reflect on the rich music and genuine fellowship presented to us. As a team of seven we became a fun-loving family, grew to know each others’ strengths and idiosynchricies, to make up alter-ego names for each other, to be there in mini-crises that occurred, and to laugh at it all when the stress levels spiraled What a full-packed 9 days it was. Shared music is truly an incredible glue that holds the world together and bonds us to one another.
Hei hei (Finnish for goodbye),
Barbie
Filed under: NOTES FROM BARB by Barb | April 10, 2008 |
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