Sinfoniakonsertti

We attended the Joensuu City Symphony Orchestra concert last night at the Carelia-Halli on the university campus. I expected something the quality of a university orchestra. But it was far superior. There is a music conservatory here in town, located just behind the church. Some of the performers were teachers there. They performed an ambitious and diverse program of Stravinsky, Mozart, and Tshaikovski. The johtaja of the orchestra was a 23-vuotias woman who started piano at age 3 and, if I read the Finnish correctly she received her diploma in conducting 3 years ago. That's pretty impressive too. She was dignified and intense and gracious.

The concert hall is lovely and appears to be used for other purposes because there were pull out writing tables in front of every seat. Of course the floors were birchwood. (They even have birch floors in the sales rooms downtown.) In the first 5-6 rows were 50 children ages 10-13 who were perfectly behaved and attentive the entire time. They had a few adults sitting with them but not many. Quite impressive. Unfortunately, the hall was only about half full. I think the tickets were about 13€.

We walked the five blocks to the concert around 6:30P in full daylight and returned shortly after 9P, once again in nearly full daylight. It's a little exciting and a little disorienting. Too bad the light can't be stored up to use in the winter.