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EESTI ELU reedel, 18. detsembril 2020 — Friday, December 18, 2020
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Estonian conductor as star of the film Nordic Pulse Kristjan Järvi, an internation ally well known charismatic Estonian musician and con ductor (familiar to Canadian Estonian communities as he, his brother Paavo and their father Neeme Järvi have visit ed several Canadian cities to guest conduct the local sym phony orchestras), is featured in a documentary film, Nordic Pulse, directed by David Donnelly, 2019. It was shown this November at the Calgary European Film Festival, at the initiative of the Alberta Esto nian Heritage Society presi dent, Kelly Schuler. As with other film festivals in this Coronavirus year, the festival went digital. The films could be watched online in one’s own home over a ten-day span across all of Canada. Nordic Pulse had good box office sales with several interested
AEHS President Kelly Schuler at the discussion panel. Photo: Siiri Kumari
Conductor Kristjan Järvi. Photo: Siiri Kumari
persons attending the virtual panel discussion as well. The showing of this film was also supported by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Festival’s own presenting organization, the European Cultural Society of Calgary, among many others. Quotes from Reuters news agency: „Kristjan Järvi has earned a reputation as one of the canniest, and most innovative programmers on the classical scene.“ „…Järvi has been breaking down ‘concrete bar riers’ between the audience and classical music pretty much since he became a conductor, starting off as an assistant to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1998“. Nordic Pulse is the kind of film one would want to see at least a couple of times to fully appreciate its form and storytelling. It follows the formation of a brand new youth orchestra, Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic, as the collective protagonist. At the same time, the film also tells Kristjan Järvi’s story of leaving Soviet Estonia for the United States of America in the 1980’s, and of developing his unconventional perspectives on making music. Together with the accomplished musicians who take on unimagined challenges in music and develop further under the guidance of Järvi, film viewers experience the power of music to overcome boundaries of geography and human convention. The film depicts the musicians’ emotions and reactions as they memorize the half-hour long „Firebird Suite“ by Stravinsky as an experiment in performing complex music without sheet music on stands in front of them. Subsequently the orchestra has become accustomed to memorizing two-hour long concerts. As the years passed, the orchestra changed its name to the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. The Nordic Pulse Panel Discussion was another coup led by the Alberta Estonian Heritage Society. Moderated by Kelly Schuler from Canada, Kristjan Järvi participated from
Italy, director David Donelly from England and Dr. Liina-Ly Roos from the USA. A professor at the University of Wis consin, Dr. Roos specializes in twentieth to twenty-first century Nordic and Baltic culture with a specific focus on post-WWII and contemporary film, television and literature. The hourlong panel event was first seen live on Zoom; the recording was then made available via the internet for the next day. During the panel, Kristjan Järvi discussed further his philosophy of music that is intricately entwined with life. His goal of doing away with the music stands, for example, is not only about reaching a new level of music performance, but it is also ultimately about listening to, supporting and trusting each other. The freedom that comes from not having to rely on music stands is based on both discipline and a willingness to leave one’s comfort zone. His sometimes unconventional or ‘un-normal’ style of leadership, as quoted several times in the film, has inspired the international young musicians who joined his vision twelve years ago, to stay with the orchestra and achieve more than they could have believed of themselves. Järvi encourages his musicians, and perhaps also the viewers, to take risks, and as he says in the film, to rethink what the term ‘success’ even means. Is it about following perfectly the conventional ways of working and of seeing the world, or, is it about creating something new; rediscovering that everything is possible? For Järvi, it is the latter. Completed in 2019, Nordic Pulse’s planned distribution was disrupted by the pandemic, but will be widely available in 2021.
For a number of years, the students of the Estonian Supplementary Schools have been writing letters to Estonian soldiers deployed abroad on peace and other military operations far from home. The Christmas greetings are forwarded by the Toronto Estonian Society, who initiated the project. Photo: Archive
Online kringel baking and Christmas party Helgi Leesment Over a dozen Albertans baked kringel on Sunday December 13, receiving instructions via Zoom directly from from baker and cook extraordi naire Krista Ehala in Tartu. Arranged by Alberta Estonian Heritage Society vice-presi dent Evelin Fodor, the preregistered bakers received the recipe ahead of time so every one had measured quantities of flour, sugar, choice of fill ing, etc. ready for the mixing and kneading. Participants included preteens experiencing their Esto nian heritage to a retired home economics instructor and experienced kringel baker looking for different techniques, plus several parent/child pairs. Not only did Krista Ehala lead each step, she also supervised each participant’s dough at the dif ferent stages, advising whether it was ready for the next step or whether it needed a bit of fixing. Her daughter Laura Ehala and Evelin Fodor provided translation. By evening, everyone’s dough had finally risen enough to roll it out, add filling, cut, braid and bake. We saw several of those at the evening AEHS online Christmas party, jointly organized by president Kelly Schuler and vice-president Evelin Fodor, with musical sec-
tion under the guidance of Martha Munz Gue. The evening event began with an interesting set of multiple choice questions about Christmas and other aspects in Estonia, followed by singing along to online cartoon versions of Jingle Bells, Silent Night and Aisakell in Estonian, and a cowboy style Christmas song in English by prairie singer, song-writer Connie Kaldor. Janne and Toomas Kuuskla of Kehra, who had performed at the AEHS Jaanipäev and Estonia centenary in 2018, sent a link to special folkdances they videod in advance especially for the AEHS Christmas party. Kelly Schuler introduced aspects of the revised AEHS website and pointed out the 2-minute video overview of AEHS on the Estonian Foundation of Canada Christmas website, among the many others by various Cana dian Estonian organizations. There was time for a bit of chatting about traditional family Christmases before wishing everyone good wishes and signing off until 2021.
Amelie Schuler-Desnoyers
HELGI LEESMENT, Victoria, BC DR. LIINA-LY ROOS, Madison, Wisconsin
E STO N I A N LI F E Your source of news about Estonia and Estonians
Kringel class in action. Upper left: instructor Krista Ehala and daughter Laura.
