Aikainen is an experimental opera about time and its different aspects. There will be two singers performing live, Frauke Aulbert and Annika Fuhrmann, and three singers performing on 3D video, Anu Komsi, Kaisa Näreranta and Tiina Sinkkonen. The Varjo Ensemble will play the music, some of it of ocarinas made by a 3D printer. The performances will be at the Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL. Box Office 020 7503 1646, ticket price £15, £12 for concessions.
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Prom 49: Russian Fairy Tales
Sakari Oramo will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The Finnish interest is the UK premiere of Jukka Tiensuu’s Voice Verser and Anu Komsi performing Szymanowski’s Songs of a Fairy Tale Princess with three additional songs orchestrated by Sakari Oramo. There will als be performances of Ravel’s Mother Goose and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Time 7.30pm at the Albert Hall, also broadcast on Radio 3.
Remembering Bill Mead
In the light of the recent death of Bill Mead, to whom as a Society we owe so much, we will have a meeting to commemorate his long life and work and to recall some of the talks that he gave to the Society. We will show part of a filmed interview with Bill Mead recorded probably in about 1980 and there will be readings from some of his books and essays. The meeting will be at the Wilkins Room, London School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1. The meeting will be at 6.30 for 7.00pm. Members wishing to attend should contact the Hon. Secretary direct, others should use the contact form on this website. Notifications should be sent by 15 September.
Exhibition: Reason & Intuition
On Thursday 21 August at 2.00pm we will have a tour of the exhibition of furniture designed by Alvar Aalto and architectural photographs by Ola Kolehmainen. Our guide is the director of the Finnish Institute and former Director of the Alvar Aalto Museum, Dr Susanna Pettersson. The venue is the Pitzhanger Manor House and Gallery, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London W5 5EQ. Please meet at the Gallery a few minutes before 2.00pm.
A Visit to Provender House
Provender is thought to have been named after Elias de Provender who built a house there in the 13th century. The house has been enlarged and greatly changed over the centuries and not much of the original house remains. Its Finnish connections began in 1890 when it was rented to the Borgström family, which, at the time, was one of the major links in commercial life between Britain and Finland. The house was bought by Sylvia McDougall (nee Bogström) in 1912, the grandmother of the present owner, Princess Olga Romanoff.
The plan is for those attending to meet for lunch at the Plough Inn, Lewson Street, Norton. After lunch there will be a visit to St Mary’s Church where flowers will be laid on the grave of Anastasie Mannerheim before we go to Provender itself. The easiest mode of transport would be private car. The nearest railway station is Faversham from which it is only a short taxi ride to Norton. Numbers are limited and preference will be given to members of the Anglo-Finnish Society. Please contact the honorary secretary (by using the contact form on this website) for further information and to register your wish to attend.
IC-98 – Archipelagos
IC-98 return to the Beaconsfield Gallery with two works from last year, Arkhipelagos (Navigating the Tides of Time) and Arkhipelagos (Ebb). The group’s members are Visa Suonpää and Patrik Söderlund and they have been chosen to represent Finland at the Venice Biennale next year. Their video installations are created using highly detailed pencil drawings. Beaconsfield is at 22 Newport Street, Vauxhall, London SE11 6AY. The Exhibition is open from Wednesdays to Saturdays, 11.00 – 17.00. If you can’t get to the gallery yourself, the videos have been posted on vimeo.
The Summer Book
Set on a remote island in Finland, six year old Sophia and her grandmother while away the summer months together and gradually a fierce yet understated love emerges between them, which encompasses not just their relationship but the island itself, with its mossy rocks, windswept firs and unpredictable seas. It is expected to be a perfect summer show for grandchildren, grandparents and everyone in between.
This adaptation of Tove Jansson’s book has been made by Jemma Kennedy. The grandmother will be played by Sara Kestelman. Venue: Unicorn Theatre (a short walk from London Bridge station), 147 Tooley Street, London SE1 2HZ. Box office 020 7645 0560.
Sakari Oramo conducts BBC SO
Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in performances of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune, the UK premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Violin Concerto (soloist Renaud Capuçon), Honegger’s Rugby and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Venue: Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London EC2 at 19.30. Box Office 020 7638 8891
Vappu Celebrations
The Finnish Church in London will hold its usual Vappu celebrations including live music, dancing and barbecue. Venue 33 Albion Street, London SE16 from 17.00 – 20.00
Finnovations
This is a retrospective exhibition of footwear designed by Julia Lundsten and Aki Choklat to be held at the 12 Star Gallery, Europe House, 32 Smith Square, London SW1. The Gallery is open on weekdays, excluding bank holidays, from 10.00 -18.00.