Jyväskylä Sinfonia abandoned the traditional conductor model and is testing shared leadership. Starting this fall, the artistic responsibility will be shared with the main guest, the string quartet Meta4.
Jyväskylä Sinfonia has 120 jobs per year. 25 of them are full-scale symphony concerts. In the new model, Meta4 will produce and conduct four concerts a year until spring 2024. In other concerts, the orchestra is led by guest conductors.
– Four people can communicate in many different directions at the same time and take care of many different parts, reflects cellist Djupsjöbacka.
The new model also brings out musically different perspectives.
– When someone has a certain opinion on the matter and someone adds another opinion, then you get a lot of power.
Djupsjöbacka admits that at first things get really messy, when the pace stick doesn’t even swing in front.
– But when you realize that now you have to act in other ways, it’s really dark.
– We have developed our own language, and when you are not in Jyväskylä for the first time, you already know how to anticipate what might happen here.
The eyeball index tells a lot about the orchestra
Violinist Minna Pensola has her own, somewhat peculiar way of monitoring the receptiveness of orchestras during rehearsals and concerts.
– I like to use the eyeball index, i.e. how many white people in the orchestra look back when I look up and say something.
Pensola rated the Jyväskylä orchestra’s index as high.
– It’s really rewarding when there are a lot of us in the same space and we work in the middle of loud volumes for a long day.
According to violinist Antti Tikkanen, it is often surprising that the quartet does not look at each other while playing.
– We go on an almost telepathic level.
– In this model of shared leadership, joint artistic work is done so that each member of the orchestra gets a real big responsibility for the final result.
The symphony is moving ahead
In January 2024, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia will open the season in the Pavilion in the Wilhelm Hall. The hall will be thoroughly renovated for concert use. Among other things, a wooden stage with better acoustics and acoustic reflectors on the walls will be built there.
– We get to practice and give concerts in the same space, and that is important for artistic development, Anttila is happy.
At the same time, the orchestra gets one more practice day when the concert day changes from Wednesday to Thursday.
However, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia does not want the pavilion’s hall to be a permanent home base.
– This is an intermediate stage and a step towards an acoustically sounding hall, where orchestral music is best.