Sharing Inspiration

Countries participating in the Shanghai Expo will have one day during the six months of the Expo when the spotlight will be on that particular country. Finland Day on the 27^th May marks an opportunity for Finland to showcase its culture in Shanghai. The day’s programme is filled with performances by over 100 artists in five different venues on the Expo grounds – Expo Center, Music Club, Europe Square, Dock 1 and the Finnish Pavilion. Finland is presenting a broad repertoire of performances for the expected 400 000 daily visitors to the Expo area.

Finland day opens with official opening in the morning at the Expo Center and ends the same evening in the same place with a Finland gala performed for an audience of 2500 people consisting of official delegations, Finns and Finnish networks in China and regular visitors.

Finland Day Programme 27th May

Europe Square Outdoor Stage (Pudong)
11:00–21:30

The Five Corners Quintet (jazz) 11:00-11:50

Kimmo Pohjonen (folk / experimental) 13:00-13:50

Villa Nah (pop) 14:50-15:40

Negative (rock) 16:30-17:20

Turisas (metal) 18:30-19:20

Stratovarius (metal) 20:30-21:20

The electronic music and VJs between the performances are courtesy of the city of Turku, 2011 European Capital of Culture.

Top Billin (DJ)

Jori Hulkkonen (DJ)

Beige & Harmaa (VJ )

Music Club, Performance Center (Pudong)
11:00–21:30

Verneri Pohjola, Joonas Riippa, Tian Bai and Mike Brownell Quartet (jazz) 12:00-12:50

Sväng (folk) 14:00-14:50

Lepistö & Lehti (folk)  16:00-16:50

Walo & Hakkarainen (circus) 18:00-18:50

The Finnish National Ballet (dance) 20:00-20:50

Dancer-choreographer Tero Saarinen artist meet-and-greet courtesy of the City of Turku, 2011 European Capital of Culture.

Dock 1 Outdoor Stage, Expo Childerens’ Theatre (Puxi)

Moominpappa and the Sea

A collaboration between Shanghai East Children’s Theatre and Svenska Teater
Two performances, 12:00 and 16:00

Expo Center, Auditorium(Pudong)                                                                                                                                                  19:00–20:30

Finland Day ends with Finland Day Gala at the Expo Center, an invite only event for representatives of Finnish and Chinese companies and stakeholders. The programme of the gala is built around the theme of the Finnish Expo, Sharing Inspiration and it consists of several collaborations between Finnish and Chinese artists.

Finnish Pavilion Kirnu 9:30–22:30

Finnish artists share insights into performing arts and creative thinking at Kirnu, with performances of dance, song, circus, street shows and different musical instruments. During May and June, your guides are Northern Savonia’s creative arts development project SARKA and the Kotka-Hamina area’s development company CURSOR. Both are sending four innovative culture professionals to perform for one month. The project was founded in co-operation with local companies and organizations, Partanen & Lamusuo Partnership and Finpro.

In addition, Helsinki will host a series of club nights reflecting the city’s vibrant music scene. The jazz, metal and electronic clubs will take place in association with the events of Finland Day on the 27^th May in various venues across the city.

More information about the Helsinki Nights here:

Helsinki Jazz
Helfest
Hel YES

Oskar Helling

Sunday 18th of October – Early evening

This afternoon I headed to Century Park together with my son, Kiwi, to visit the JZ music festival.

The festival area of the park had been separated for the audience and there were three stages to choose from. We settled for the Jazz stage in the middle. Our timing was pretty good since we had plenty of time before Verneri Pohjola was up. On the stage was a Taiwanese band playing. They used flutes and what seemed like some traditional Chinese instruments as the “lead” replacing the vocalist – I do not know what it’s called. Anyhow, it sounded really good and we got settled on the grass with an ice cream and a nice and cold beer. We had a little bit of disagreement though, since Kiwi wanted to sit in the sun and I wanted to sit in the shade. We solved this by finding a spot right in front of the stage next to the tent furnished as the sound booth. Kiwi got to enjoy the sun and between us we had the sharp shade drawn by the tent.

Not surprisingly, we met a lot of Finnish friends who had also come to listen to Verneri. We had, after all, already beforehand made sure that most of the Finnish community knew about this event by informing the members of the Finnish Association in Shanghai. Many familiar faces from the consulate were there, and also some people I had not met for a long time.Among others I ran into an old acquaintance, Seppo, who together with his wife, Lin Di, plays in the band “Cold Fairyland”.

At about 2.20pm Verneri entered the stage. He must be travelling really light, since during the past three days I had seen him always in the same (or similar) clothes. I guess musicians have this thing about making a statement through how they dress. Among “music-people” there seems exist this universal fascination for too long and tight tube jeans that always must crawl up around their ankles. Now, god knows I am not the best dresser on this planet, and I am definitely not passing a judgment – I am merely observing a group of people that I have not had that much contact with previously.

Verneri played for about an hour and a half. Some of his tunes I had had the opportunity to hear already previously, either on Friday or Saturday night. After a while this stuff starts to grow on you. I guess it has something to do with getting into the middle age, but I definitely like more the calm and melodic pieces rather than the fast stuff with many variations. The two last tunes Verneri played were especially nice. Sorry to say, I did not catch the names of them. They were almost like lullabies, nice and melodic.

As the show ended, Kiwi made the interesting observation that no one in the audience had danced. I was baffled and did not quite know how to explain this to him, so as the responsible and respectful parent that I am, I simply ducked the question. Instead, we headed over to the stage and I gave Kiwi money to buy a CD from Verneri. 50 yuan!! How on earth can he afford to put food on his table? The album, Aurora, is excellent, though.

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3                   4

1-Verneri Pohjola performing at the JZ Club during the after party on Saturday.

2-The crowds in front of the Jazz stage of the JZ Festival in Century park.

3-Verneri performed together with a Shanghainese ensemble.

4-The perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon?

• Youku

Oskar Helling

Shanghai, Saturday 17th of October – Mid-afternoon

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting Verneri Pohjola. I had been invited to a small evening get-together that he and many other Finnish and Chinese musical and cultural representatives would attend. Verneri is one of Finland’s upcoming trumpet players and “only” 30-some years old. I had, somehow, and why I do not know, expected someone much elder. Anyhow, it turns out that Verneri is a very sympathetic and modest guy who definitely seems to know what he is talking about when we chat about making music and Jazz in particular.

Verneri Pohjola performed together with “his professor” Jari Perikiönmäki, vice Dean of the Sibelius academy in Helsinki. I cannot recall the names of the tunes they played, but it was nice. One thing that immediately struck me was that a trumpet and a saxophone are very loud instruments. It seemed that both of the gentlemen held back on the volume in order not to blow the eardrums of the 40-some guests at the Consul General’s residence.

Afterwards I went over to introduce myself and chatted with the guys a little bit. One of the main reasons Verneri is in town is the JZ-Festival which will be held on Saturday and Sunday in Century park here in Shanghai. Verneri will perform on the main stage on Sunday, as well as the after party on Saturday at the very intimate JZ-Club on West Fuxin Rd.

I find it kind of ironic that I should choose to write about music or culture – I know practically nothing about either. Thus, chatting with Verneri taught me a great deal. For instance, I had never known the amount of so called post production that goes into making music. Verneri explained about how computer programs help modern music makers to modify and tweak the already recorded music.

This is going to be an interesting year. The hype around the Shanghai World Expo is increasing day by day. Even though the exposition itself doesn’t open until May, many Expo related events are being already arranged. The cultural program around the Finnish exposition is very much planned around Music – which is kind of nice, since I have a feeling that Finns and Chinese might have very similar taste in this area.

Verneri Pohjola (right) and Jari Perkiönmäki performing at the residence of Finland´s Consul General.