Link to the Video of “Juoksen perässäsi elämä” (“I Run After You, Life”)

Here is the link to the video of “Juoksen perässäsi elämä” from the UML Festival 2021.
The work includes seven poems by Elina Salminen, recited by the musicians.
 Watch on YouTube

Koiteli Kollektiivi:
Michał Konopiński – clarinet
Reeta Maalismaa – violin
Outi Nissi – piano

About the Work

“I composed this piece in the spring of 2020, when schools and hobbies in Finland moved to remote learning. I began teaching music theory and composition online, while our children attended their school and hobbies from home.

Soon our home felt like a pressure cooker, where all work and leisure activities took place simultaneously. Many colleagues lost their jobs, but for me, it was the opposite. Instead of peacefully composing my new work in the mornings before teaching—as I had planned—I found myself cooking for the children and redesigning lesson plans disrupted by the shift to remote teaching.

In the midst of hectic and disappointed feelings, Elina Salminen’s poems spoke to me. They shaped the structure and dramaturgy of the composition, and—unusually for me—the piece begins with its most intense section. I listened to my high school students describing how remote learning had exhausted them. I wanted to create a work that would allow listeners to relax in the concert hall and reflect on life, boundaries, and self-compassion.

During the composition process, I journeyed deep within myself, questioning and redefining my own values.”

The work is dedicated to Trio TreColor, who commissioned and premiered it at the Haapajärvi Parish Hall on September 12, 2020.
The composition was funded by the Madetoja Foundation.

– Sanna Ahvenjärvi