The Kuhmo Festival was started in 1970 by Seppo Kimanen. Like many successful arts ventures, it started small and with a lovely, idealistic vision…to have a music festival and school in a place of great natural beauty. It grew quickly, but 43 years later (with 80 concerts and 167 musicians participating) the festival still retains the idealistic spirit. Concerts are fairly informal, and it’s common to see performers wearing T-shirts on stage. And there’s a certain “all for one and one for all” attitude about this festival that makes it unique – it hasn’t fallen into the commercial pattern that big festivals in the states have. Here they actually call this attitude “the Kuhmo style.”
But attitude only goes so far when faced with a tsunami of concerts and rehearsals.
- a concert hall booked from 6am to 12 midnight every day
- 20 pianos are imported for the festival
- 35 rehearsals per day!
- 12 and more stage hands
- 100 students
- 3 full-time page turners
- 350 volunteers
It makes my head spin to think about these things. Just getting musicians from here to there is a feat, brilliantly accomplished Kuhmo-style by providing bicycles for most of the artists. Yes, even the cellists!
The team behind all this number and time crunching is a quartet of brilliant women who set the festival wheels in motion with grace, spirit and professionalism. Between rehearsals, practice and concerts, I found the time to meet briefly with three of them.
The head of the Festival, the Executive Director, is Sari Rusanen. Beautiful and charming, she is the perfect spokesperson for this enormous event. I often see her leading people (donors, perhaps) in tours of the concert hall, a building of which she is justly proud. Ms. Rusanen has worked for the Kuhmo festival for 20 years, starting as its financial manager. She has been the Executive Director for 3 years. I asked her what her goal is as head of the organization. Her answer in modest Kuhmo style – “To see a better festival year after year.” I asked Sari two additional simple questions:
Q. What is the most challenging thing about Kuhmo?
A. “To organize one of the world’s great chamber music festivals – 14 days, 100 events, 330 people working for us - all within such a modest budget.”
Q. What is the most rewarding thing about Kuhmo?
A. “To have, in the middle of nowhere, the best kind of chamber music festival full of great music and great artists from all over the world. And to see Kuhmo for two weeks out of the year become one of the world’s capitols of chamber music.
I loved these answers!
Retiring this season after 30 years of being Kuhmo’s Administrative Director is Ritva Eervola. She is the organizational and financial brain behind the festival, and spends the year dealing with the myriad of details needed to keeping things running. With wise eyes behind some seriously retro-chic glasses, she exudes calm and focused intent. I asked Ritva about what she will miss the most about Kuhmo, and she answered without hesitation, “the people.” I also asked her my two basic questions.
Q. What is the most challenging thing about Kuhmo?
A. “Having every detail so well organized that the audience has no idea how much work it took to produce the concerts – to make it seem easy and fun and not know the pain and tears [said with laughter] behind the scenes. It should seem that we simply called the musicians up and they came to play a concert.”
Q. What is the most rewarding thing about Kuhmo?
A. “To see it all happen.”
Sera Valtonen is the festival’s Rehearsal Coordinator, an important job that seemed near impossible until I learned that she uses a specifically designed computer program to organize the rehearsals. Because of this, no one is double-booked, or has to rehearse all day long. The program is also linked to the administrative organization so if an executive decision has to be made, changes are automatically calculated into the rehearsal schedule. Sera answered my two questions.
Q. What is the most challenging thing about Kuhmo?
A. “Coming here relaxed! Being at this festival is so busy with my job, and it’s busier because I also want to reserve some time to socialize with the people here. So I take a vacation before I come here.”
Q. What is the most rewarding thing about Kuhmo?
A. “To see artists going onstage and everything works. It gives joy to this job to attend one of the concerts. And to get paid for it!”
This administrative quartet works hand in hand with festival’s Artistic Director, Vladimir Mendelssohn. As I wrote in part one of the blog, he is the Svengali behind all the music. At once intellectual, poetic, unflinching and sentimental, Mr. Mendelssohn has the vast knowledge of repertoire and the vast contacts with other musicians needed to fill a festival like this with interesting, entertaining and high-quality programs. Being a man of few words is no problem for him – his intellect, humor and spirituality come through loud and clear in the programming. I’ll never forget a concert he devised on the theme of Cold War Germany, and some of the music that was officially sanctioned by the GDR. It started with a Handel harpsichord sonata, and then the walls parted and musicians were revealed singing a pro-Communist propaganda march, followed by Bach’s Coffee Cantata. Sheer genius, and pure Valdy – equal parts beauty, irony, scholarship and surprise. He spends his time in Kuhmo handling crises and triumphs on a daily basis. Just a 48 hours ago he conjured up a 1960’s era pedal harpsichord that needed to be delivered to Kuhmo overnight for a piece by Sophia Gubaidulina, and today he performed a beautiful performance of Schubert’s D minor Quartet. I am convinced that there is a top secret cloning program in Finland and that there are actually two or more of him running around.
Q. Most challenging aspect of being the Artistic Dirtector?
A. “To know how far to go with risk-taking in the programs, and know when not to go too far.”
Q. Most rewarding thing of being the Artistic Director?
A. “The 1 to 5 minutes when everything seems normal.”
The can-do Kuhmo spirit also masks some of the tremendous stamina and dedication on the part of the musicians here. Often there will be only the bare minimum of time to prepare a difficult piece of music, and when the schedule says that rehearsal starts at 6:42pm and ends at 8:05pm, you better believe that you have no extra time. So the level of performing ability is stunning. Taking the pressure off and keeping the musicians relaxed and happy is taken very seriously at Kuhmo. The Salakamari restaurant is the official watering hole for after-concert socializing. You can order a drink here, put a sausage on a stick and roast it over the open fire pit. In any case you’ll want to get near the fire – it keeps the mosquitoes away! There are also many social events arranged for the musicians. These include late-night sauna parties at stunning locations near gorgeous lakes - chances to have some food and beer, sit by a fire and have a sauna. The saunas have an additional benefit. Trust me, there absolutely can be no attitude in rehearsal or on stage after you’ve been baking au natural with your colleagues in mind-numbing heat!
I find Kuhmo challenging and exciting, and supremely motivating. It’s a tremendous boost to come here and collaborate and socialize with all of these wonderful musicians. It’s also important to me to be making music in Finland, a place where the love and appreciation of classical chamber music is palpable and deeply felt. There is a quote from Executive Director Sari Rusanen in the festival program book:
“Living life to the full generates some of the best memories. A festival is always a chance for this.”
I hope that all of you reading this will some day have the opportunity to experience this unique and impressive festival.
Click here to go to the Kuhmo Festival website
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