Goodbye, Finn Fest 2011!

THANK YOU ALL WHO CAME AND MADE THIS EVENT A HUGE SUCCESS. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR IN TUCSON!

The 2011 FinnFest USA festival, held at the Town & Country Convention and Resort Center in San Diego, had promised a chance to get to know contemporary Finland. Attendees confirm that Finland took on new meaning as a contemporary country with a contemporary culture with much to interest all Americans, regardless of their previous connection to Finland.

Music, a central component of all FinnFests, this year, emphasized contemporary Finnish music and musicians. All varieties of Finnish music were offered, including folk, rock, gospel, pop, jazz, and classical.  Both Finns and Americans, including Minneapolis based Kaivama, Singing Strings, and Saana, created music in the tori, on a sunny outdoor courtyard, and in two auditoriums devoted to concerts and performances. 

Kantele players were everywhere.  Keynoters were the American Wilho Saari, NEH Heritage Artist in 2006, now this year’s Finlandia Foundation National Performer of the Year, and the Koistinen Kantele Duo from Finland. Anttu Koistinen, first seen at the 2005 FinnFest USA festival, returned this year with Olga Shishkina, a Russian kantele player studying at the Sibelius Academy, to play a wide repertoire of electronic Kantele music.  Merja Sorja, Finlandia Foundation’s first Performer of the Year, in 1996, served as host for a kantele concert that included a kantele “orchestra” made up of players from across the USA, including Joyce Hakala, founder of Koivun Kaiku. 

Classical music included two chamber music concerts, two solo recitals, and a panel discussion about contemporary Finnish music performance. Organized by musician and conductor, Craig Johnson, the events created opportunities for professional American and Finnish musicians to come together to perform seldom heard works by Finnish composers. Gregory Barrett, Katri Ervamaa, Folke Gräsbeck, Will Haapaniemi, James Koenig, Alyssa Moquin, Päivikki Nykter, Mikko Raasakka, Karl Rahkonen and Ulla Suokko contributed virtuoso performances that brought audience members to their feet again and again.

Finland’s contemporary gospel music, performed by a gospel choir formed of singers from Seattle and San Diego, featured  Finland’s leading gospel music composer and performer, Pekka Simojoki, and his daughter, Henna Simojoki. The two also performed in concert alone and Pekka joined Jonathon Rundman, Minneapolis Lutheran liturgy composer and half of the duo Kaivama, in a discussion about contemporary religious music composition.

On the last night of the festival, J. Karjalainen and the Polka Billies as well as Ismo Alanko Teholla enabled attendees to feel the energy and creativity of contemporary Finnish rock music in a rock concert in the space that earlier that day featured chamber musicians. Opening for these rock musicians were jazz pianist, Lenni-Kalle Taipale and jazz singer Sami Pitkämö.  It was that kind of a festival of Finnish music. A music lover could go from one music genre to another throughout the day and evening.   

A major festival highlight included the chance to interact with the Moomins, the characters created by Tove Jansson in a series of beloved Finnish children’s books about Moominvalley.  Both children and adults wanted to talk to the Moomins and have their photograph taken with the Moomins.  Minneapolis attorney, Elaine Kumpula, who had provided the legal assistance needed for the Moomins get their visas to come to the USA, was only one of many who went home with photos. The Moomins themselves had such a good time at the festival that they began discussions with the FinnFest USA board about how they could become a regular feature at future festivals.

Lectures and panel discussions

Since the first year of FinnFest USA, lectures and panels have enabled FinnFests to create stimulating and challenging discussions. San Diego’s program continued in that tradition, this year emphasizing opportunities to learn more about contemporary Finland. Already on Tuesday, August 9^th, a day before the festival formally began, “Brave Questions”, an all day seminar, looked at public education, its challenges and its potential.  Looking closing at the system in Finland, speakers provided insights into what is happening in Finland’s public schools today and reasons for its high international test scores.  Well received, future festival goers should expect that education will be a topic again.

That emphasis on Finland continued in individual lectures and panels that followed throughout the festival. People heard “the latest” on the impact of Finland’s recent parliament elections, the debt crisis in Greece, the migration that is transforming European countries into multi-cultural societies. Finland, as one European country coping with these contemporary issues, provided a context and a perspective that the American media generally fails to include. Included among the speakers were a Finnish member of the European Parliament, the Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and a researcher at the Migration Institute. Many attendees spoke about how meaningful this experience had been for them personally.

Written by Marianne Wargelin, Finnish Honorary Consul in the Twin Cities