Mezzo-soprano and violinist Virpi Räisänen returned to the north just before the corona pandemic hit. Now he has been able to attract top names in art to Meri-Lappi.
The city orchestra of Kemi and the Meri-Lap string quartet have got a conductor for this autumn and spring season, who is a familiar sight on the world’s performance stages from Europe, North and South America as well as Asia.
– Right before the corona was probably the most intense phase of my career and I was quite tired. I started to think that now or never I would like to change my life somehow and I decided that I would come and experience with my family what it would be like to live in Finland.
Räisänen was supposed to spend only a few months in Finland, but the corona pandemic that swept the whole world like a tidal wave changed the plans.
– It happened to us that we live in Yli-Ii, it was the best and safest place in the world during the corona era.
A couple of years in Yli-I showed that he finally has his feet firmly on the ground.
– I am where I should be and I want to work for northern Finland.
Busy autumn
Among other things, Virpi Räisänen, who has had a career as a singer and violinist, says that the Meri-Lap string quartet is a rarity even by world standards.
– Because of my string quartet background, this has been a really admirable place. There is a municipal string quartet here with a monthly salary. I think it’s really great that the string quartet can play such an important role in the city’s musical life, and it forms the heart of the city’s musical life, around which the city orchestra can be built.
Räisänen says that he was impressed by the popularity of culture in the region. The first autumn concert of the string quartet was attended by huge numbers of people, and in the end the church in Kemi was packed.
– It told me right from the handshake that when there’s something good on offer, that’s when we get started here.
The beginning of Pest has been fast-paced and full of work. Virpi Räisänen, who started his position in early autumn, has assembled the software at a rapid pace.
– Generally, this software assembly work is done for a very long time. It can take years to get artists to a locality, but when there are extensive contact networks and the framework is given, suddenly a huge number of ideas come.
Sometimes, however, the working days have stretched into the night.
– There have been some pretty virtuosic turns here this month.
A good offer gets people moving
Räisänen characterizes the Meri-Lap area as a lively and active area. He sees that the area could be profiled even more as a cradle of culture.
– It would be wonderful for this area if this were looked at more as a whole, also in terms of the music scene.
The small ensemble of the Meri-Lappi String Quartet can perform at, for example, a gas station, and this autumn there is also a tour of facilities. Räisänen says that finding premises for the orchestra has been more difficult.
– A small wish for the city’s decision-makers, that it would be insanely great to have a hall here, where music-making works.
Räisänen points out that music knows no municipal boundaries.
– Music knows no boundaries whatsoever and people move according to what is offered. If there is a good supply in a city or an area, people will come from further afield.