Aku Sorensen

Today I celebrated 10 years since I moved to Finland. It's been a wild ride of a decade, but a good one. I've gotten to live my dream, met the love of my life, and experienced more than 18-year-old-me could ever have imagined. Looking forward to the next ten years.

12.08.2025 20:54 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

First week at the Finnish National Ballet down as we prepare Sally Beamish's delightful Christmas Carol. It's been so rewarding watching the dancers work and observing the different pedagogic methods of the ballet masters, and I simply can't wait for this project to come together

16.11.2024 11:13 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

100 vuotta YStävyyttä! Suomen vanhimman akateemisen sinfoniaorkesterin juhlakausi alkaa vuonna 2025 – Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat

Read more about our season here: ys.fi/2024/10/28/1...

30.10.2024 14:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A graphic declaring that the 100th anniversary season of the Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat orchestra will begin in 2025

My dear orchestra, Ylioppilaskunnan Soittajat, turns 100 in 2026! Highlights of our jubilee season include having back former members Paula Ernesaks (Berlin Phil) and John Storgårds (conductor) as soloists, as well as bringing back works that then-players Lotta Wennäkoski and Kalevi Aho wrote for us

30.10.2024 14:12 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

After 11 days of every waking second (and quite a few half-asleep seconds) being devoted to it, the program for the 2025 Sounds of Luosto festival is done. Work actually began in mid-May, and things may still change before publication in February, but I can actively feel the fog in my mind clearing

23.10.2024 19:14 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I tend to memorize texts by speaking them in rhythm as I run errands. Conducting Vaughan Williams' "A Sea Symphony" in November, and it's now been pointed out to me that just muttering "And on its limitless heaving breast" over and over to myself on the bus may not be a great look

28.09.2024 17:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

He kept saying "I'm so sorry I brought this up, you look pained, but..." and she kept just shouting "is that what you think art is??"

24.05.2024 12:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Last night I watched a middle-aged business man blow up a date that had been going ok by trying to explain to a playwright how AI would make her job easier and more efficient, and it was glorious.

24.05.2024 12:06 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

I mean, probably because of the need to impress American donors with the title. A lot of European ensembles separate the concept of principal conductor and artistic director, often with the latter title going to an administrator in charge of artistic planning who might stick around a little longer..

07.04.2024 07:14 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Exactly. But these mid-to-large publishers are rarely doing anything other than pricing out groups that would really like to perform these works (especially in cases like the Smyth, which is no longer copyright protected. They're just benefiting from a scarcity of material available).

23.11.2023 17:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

A recently published score for Ethyl Smyth's Serenade in D costs 848€ on PrestoMusic, (425$ directly from the publisher) and I have honestly never felt such fury. The attempt to capitalize on the push for diversification of the canon has been such a tremendous setback for the industry.

23.11.2023 10:01 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

So far I've just found it difficult to figure out who has migrated here and who hasn't, but this does seem like that other service when it was only a trash-fire and not... whatever it's become.

23.11.2023 09:34 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0