Last Sunday, I gave a recital in Helsinki. I sang Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Finnish modernist Yrjö Kilpinen’s songs from series Kanteletarlauluja and Tunturilauluja. Pianist was Joel Papinoja.
Every now and then, when I am alone in the rehearsal room my mind wanders off to metaphysical questions. What is being? Why do I exist? Why do I waste my time singing? Why do I think this kind of things?
An outside observer would say that the recital on Sunday was what recitals basically are: we were at the stage and streamed the information to the audience which received it. That is the way most of the people see it.
A bus is an excellent place to observe people; people look out as if they were in null mode. Immediately, when they notice a friend entering the bus, they change the mode. They start to communicate. They come back to life.
Being is a crucial part of performing. If you are not at the stage you are not able to perform. Conceptualizing being through communication is a way to realise the idea of a singing performance. In the singing performance, the singer is not only a transmitting object: the singer becomes a part of the spectator’s mind and vice versa. The communication converts their minds into one. During the performance, the singer and the audience are only one mind.
I saw my old friend Petteri had started to write this blog. I called him and I was in. The project is spectacular. The project meetings are in many ways similar to a singing performance. They are both what I would call compressed being.
Today’s blogger is Oskari Nokso-Koivisto – the artistic director of the millionbefore30 project.
How to Make a Million Before 30 