Sheila Packa Poetry Blog: Migrations

January 24, 2016

Migrations

According to Fennica Gehrman, the music company in Helsinki that produces Kortekangas' work:

Olli Kortekangas’s Migrations for male choir, soloist and orchestra is to be given its first performance on 4 February 2016, in Minneapolis. Furher performances are scheduled for 5 and 6 February. A commission from the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, it will be recorded by BIS Records, coupled with Sibelius’s Finlandia and Kullervo. The soloist with the YL Male Voice Choir will be Lilli Paasikivi. Migrations celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the Finnish migration to North America. The text is by Sheila Packa, and it tells tales of migration through themes of identity, transformation and hope.

Migrations is the second sizeable commission Kortekangas has received from the United States; the first, Seven Songs for Planet Earth, was premiered by the Washington Choral Society in 2011. This can next be heard in Minesota on 23 April, in a performance by the Masterworks Chorale of Augsburg College conducted by Peter Hendrickson.