I’ve had my doze of jazzy woodwind music today 🙂 Lenny Pickett, one of the founding members of the band Tower of Power and the musical director of the TV show “Saturday Night Live“, was here at my tiny little town of Uusikaupunki and played some great music with top-quality Finnish musicians (saxophonists Jouni Järvelä[…]
This summer is going to be CRAZY for local pipe organ freaks here in Uusikaupunki, Finland… The Marcussen organ of the local main Lutheran church has it’s 150th anniversary this year (it’s the oldesr Marcussen organ in Finland!) and many prominent organists are coming here to perform on it throughout the year… Kalevi Kiviniemi, one[…]
I had quite a busy weekend… On Saturday I was accompanying the tenor Perttu Mathlin in the Turku Baptist Church in Turku, Finland, and on Sunday I played the piano at the local Pentecostal Sunday service here in Uusikaupunki, and later in the evening I accompanied an amateur choir at a Lutheran evening mass in[…]
Today I was listening to the final round of the international oboe competition that was part of the annual Crusell Music Festival here in Uusikaupunki this year. It was held in the new Lutheran church in the town center and it was also broadcast on the Finnish national radio network YLE. There were four competitors[…]
I’ve started doing an arrangement of the classic American patriotic song “America the Beautiful”… I’ll post it here when it’s done … Oh, and yesterday I was at a 4th of July cook-out party organized by a Finnish-American family that lives here in Uusikaupunki, Finland… They belong to the same church as me and I’ve[…]
Today I was listening organ music in the local “new” Lutheran church (from 1863, the older one is from 1623)… Mr. Henri Sarametsä, an organist for the Lutheran church here, gave us 15 minutes of Buxtehude… Luckily the church has a very nice-sounding Marcussen organ (a Danish organ brand) that will celebrate it’s 150th anniversary[…]
Decided to post some photos from my town 🙂 here they are… enjoy!
Hi there again! So much has happened during last two weeks… I’ve been accompanying the singer and evangelist Eija Merilä during a mission tour held by Dr. Chauncey Crandall and his wife Deborah Crandall from Palm Beach, Florida… Quite busy and exhausting but at the same time very rewarding two weeks, I must say… We[…]
Was listening to some organ music again in the new Lutheran church of Uusikaupunki. As before, it was the chief organist Ari Hirvonen who presented us some beautiful music by guys like Guilmant, Rheinberger and Vaughan Williams. And as before, it was very beautiful 🙂
Was listening to a concert by the pianist Lauri Väinmaa and the cellist Lauri Voipio. What a beautiful concert! The concert was held in the Lutheran congregational center of Uusikaupunki and it was simply stunning! I was impressed especially by the beautiful Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven, especially by the technically very difficult 3rd movement “Presto[…]
I uploaded some photos of my current town of residence (Uusikaupunki) to the Photos page above. Feel free to view them and leave a comment 🙂 …
Got today to “practise” with Finland’s oldest Marcussen organ (1865) in the newer Lutheran church of Uusikaupunki. Yayy 🙂
On Boxer’s Day (26th December) we had a pretty nice storm here at the Finnish west coast… [youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=v0mjRv7vNT] Pretty nice, wasn’t it? 🙂
Played today at a local Lutheran center (not the same place where I practise)… accompanied and played Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night”… and got a delicious gift as you can see 🙂
I attended a Christmas concert today at the Uusikaupunki Pentecostal Church… the singer Mika Karola performed there along with her daughter Anni-Kaisa as a violinist and the multi-talented Lasse Heikkilä as pianist, guitarist and accordionist… Interesting concert, I must say 🙂 …
I attended a chamber music concert today… some students from Turku Music Academy performed at the local cultural center Cruselli here in Uusikaupunki, Finland… The last duo was the best IMHO… Kodály FTW 🙂 Below is the concert program…
Played two gigs yesterday… first at the local Pentecostal Church and then with a local amateur orchestra in the newer Lutheran church here in Uusikaupunki… was pretty tired and for some reason I couldn’t sleep well last night 🙂 …