Vertin Gallery Hosts Sibelius Reception
Three days ago we reported on the 10th Annual Sibelius Music Festival in Hancock and the three concerts that made up the Music Festival. The Festival concluded last Saturday with a public reception which was held at the Vertin Gallery, Calumet, Michigan.
 
Phillip Johnson, President of Finlandia University made a brief statement to the people gathered at the gallery, concluding by introducing and thanking Roger Reynolds for his contribution to this year's Musical Festival.
Reynolds, a Pulitzer prize-winning composer has worked closely with each of this year's Sibelius Academy musicians as they developed their individual performance programs. Mr. Reynolds also produced the the program notes offered by the musicians and himself.
During the reception, Sibelius Academy musicians Kaisa Koivula, clarinet, and Jukka Ojala, accordion, performed six selections.
Prior to hearing Kaisa and Jukka play I wondered if the Clarinetist and Accordianist would be playing duets. I thought perhaps that they might be two individual musicians perfomering individually. Since I had never heard these two instruments played together I was indeed in for a pleasant surprise.

In his introduction to the musicians Mr. Reynolds told the audience that during his work with Kaisa and Jukka he learned that the couple had been doing all their own arrangements, appearently unaware that many arrangements already exist for their instrumentation.
The very first composition they performed was a Schumann Opus, Opus 94 for Oboe and Piano. Several other varieties of music were played during the afternoon, including Finnish Folk Songs and a Fandago solo on accordian by Jukka.
 
Photo above: Roger Reynolds and his wife, Karen (Hill) Reynolds. Roger is a professor of music composition at the University of California, San Diego.  Read Roger's Bio.
Karen formally known as Karen Hill a native of Wakefield, MI. Karen is the daughter of Ila Amanda and Arthur J. Hill, whose musical contributions as Director of Music over the years at Finlandia University brought considerable fame to the school. Karen is an accomplished flutist. Karen (Hill) Reynolds studied at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and University of California, San Diego. Her principal teacher was Marcel Moyse; she also studied in Paris with Michel Debost on a Fulbright scholarship. Reynolds has been active in the planning, performance, and production of music festivals including Séances de travail in Paris, Cross Talk Concert Series and Intermedia Festival in Tokyo, and the Center for Music Experiment and Pacific Rim Festival at the University of California, San Diego. Reynolds has also taught flute at San Diego State University.