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17.03.2010: Travel accounts

Hello everyone,

this is "Jet Lag" Lepola reporting on the last month and a half in the life of Rajaton. And there's quite a few things indeed to report on, so off we go!

Feb5-19, Southern Finland tour

...or at least that's what this series of concerts in Hyvinkää, Helsinki, Lohja and Järvenpää could very well have been called. It's quite a rare treat these days for us to get to perform our basic repertoire (=not the Christmas show) this many times in a row in our home country, so this was a perfect way of starting the new year. Between the gigs we were working intensively on our upcoming album in the studio, as well as planning our future projects.

Feb21-23, a very brief visit to Central Europe

Our flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen was late, causing us to miss our connecting flight to Hamburg. Eventually we reached our  final destination, a little church in Gnarrenburg, Lower Saxony, at the very instant that the concert was supposed to begin. After a swift change of clothes, a very perplexed vocal ensemble walked into the crowded church where the alter was in the middle of the enthusiastic audience. For a moment we didn't quite know which way to stand, but after we got that sorted out it was a very nice concert. I'm glad that it wasn't to be amplified...

The next day we flew from Hamburg to Innsbruck, Austria, from where we took a true scenery route by car to the Gardena Valley in the Italian Dolomites. After the concert the promoters took us for real Italian pizza, and it was wonderful to meet our old friends, wood-carving artists Richard and Flavio. I was sorry that we had to leave so soon; it would've been nice to stay for a couple of days and do some skiing. Maybe next time!

Feb25-28, Creston, Iowa

Our nearly-three-week North American tour started from Iowa, USA, but we were stuck at the immigration once again. Half of the group got through in Memphis with no problems, but the other half, including myself, were sitting in a little waiting room for hours, so that we eventually missed our connecting flight again. The next available flight was in the morning, so we had to spend the night at the airport hotel and get back to the airport in the early dawn. A pretty unpleasant way to start a tour...

Creston is a tiny little town in the middle of the rolling hills of Iowa, but they have a college there that gives excellent jazz vocal education. That became clear as we were listening to the local collegiate groups that opened for us. Really impressive!

We had the honour of sharing the stage twice with one of the most the brilliant groups I know: m-pact. We've met these guys many times before, but I must say that the group was, if possible, tighter than ever, and I don't think that Voulez-Vous has ever grooved like it did with them! Thank you Fletch, Greg, Marco, Jeff, Matt and Trist; it was our pleasure!

Feb28-Mar3, St. John's, Newfoundland

America is a big continent. That was proved once again as we travelled from the morning till the small hours from the U.S. Midwest to the easternmost corner of Canada. However, St. John's is always worth our while; after all, it is the very place where we started our North American career years ago. The sold-out hall made us really feel welcome, not to mention the unbelievable dinners at Gillian and Jeremy's, who are beyond all superlatives. A big thank you to them, as well as Chad and Cantus Vocum, also for a very professionally organized concert arrangements! It's great to know that we'll be back in Newfoundland already next summer!

Mar3-8, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Yahoo, another Canadian province to our credit! Originally we were only supposed to sing ABBA with the local symphony orchestra, but the Nova Scotia Choral Federation rolled up their sleeves and organized a full choral festival around us and an a cappella concert to conclude it. We found that the level of both choral and orchestral music in Nova Scotia is excellent.

Symphony Nova Scotia was a very pleasant acquaintanceship, as was their principal conductor, German maestro Bernhard Gueller. Thank you to Bernhard and the orchestra for a good cooperation; let's hope it may continue in the future!

The Sing with Rajaton choral festival (yes, that's what it was called!) allowed us to give masterclasses to choirs and vocal ensembles, some of which were of quite a high level, and everybody was extremely enthusiastic. The weekend culminated in the final encore of our a cappella concert, which was Butterfly sung together with 500 choristers.

Mar8-14, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Before the last concert of the tour we had as many as four days off, and we had decided to spend them in Minneapolis which was a familiar city to us already. The free days included, depending on the person, e.g. shopping at the Mall of America, an NHL game, the La Boheme opera, and a Minnesota Orchestra concert, but also some work-related meetings.

The huge Orchestra Hall was delightfully crowded as we finally walked onstage on Friday night. This was the first time for us to perform here without the orchestra, but I certainly hope it wasn't the last time. As we concluded the concert with the final encore, Finlandia by Jean Sibelius sung unamplified, it was a perfect conclusion for the whole tour.

Spring is here soon, so I wish you lots of sunny days!

Hannu