Text: Riikka Mahlamäki-Kaistinen
Photos: Interviewees’ personal archives
The article has been published in the Finland Bridge magazine 4/2023.
When the 180-member choir is rehearsing, nobody can hear what the whole ensemble sounds like
Maria Männistö joins the interview from Seattle, the United States, and Eva-Christina Pietarinen, a former long-term resident of Germany, from Finland – so we start off by saying ‘good morning’ to one of them and ‘good evening’ to the other.
Still, finding a good moment for this interview was easy compared to arranging a suitable time for choir rehearsals led by Männistö and Pietarinen. Sometimes more than 100 people from a dozen European and North American countries take part in them.
Even though planning rehearsal schedules is an awe-inspiring effort, it is the actual choir activities that deserve real recognition. Consequently, the Finland Society has selected the Finnish Expatriate Choir, led by Männistö and Pietarinen, as the Finnish Expatriate of the Year 2023.
“It is a fantastic acknowledgement,” the leaders say, clearly pleased with the honor.
Origins of the choir
Pietarinen and Männistö, both professional musicians, have extensive experience in leading choirs and working with larger-scale projects.
For instance, Männistö was in charge of a recording of Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia produced with North American singers for Finnish Independence Day in 2020.
Pietarinen has been closely involved in Finnish expatriate choirs based in Europe for several years.
Their first joint project was producing a virtual performance of expatriate choirs as one grand choir for the Virtual Suomi-kylä and Finnish Expatriate Parliament’s online session 2021. Although it was originally meant to be a one-off project, the choir has now rehearsed virtually for more than a year and even released an album.
“The Finnish Expatriate Choir includes members of various expatriate choirs as well as individual singers who don’t have a Finnish choir in their hometown. We see the Finnish Expatriate Choir as a sort of an umbrella organization, gathering together singers from different expatriate choirs,” Pietarinen explains.
The idea to have more than 100 people singing together via Zoom may sound chaotic – and it would certainly be that if all of them had their microphones on. However, during rehearsals, only the leader speaks while the members’ mikes are muted. They all sing by themselves at home while listening to the choir leader.
Pietarinen says that the method has its plusses and minuses. On one hand, singers miss mirroring their voice onto other voices and the feeling of doing things together, while on the other hand they can take part in rehearsals anywhere and focus on their own singing better. Neither the singers nor leaders know how the whole choir sounds during the rehearsal.
First time together
In 2022, the choir released the album Yli rajojen (Beyond Borders). The title refers to both the singers and the songs, since the album includes several classic pieces with expatriate origins, such as Jukka Kuoppamäki’s Sininen ja valkoinen (Blue and White).
The album was compiled by combining individual choir members’ recordings of their singing. They are from Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Sweden, Estonia, Norway and Finland.
According to Männistö, mixing the recordings felt like revealing a great secret.
“The result was great and needed surprisingly little polishing,” she says. “All the parts seemed to snap easily together.”
Pietarinen says that some singers were nervous about submitting their contributions.
“They were worried that their singing wasn’t good enough, but all voices melted into a great ensemble. It was easy to give advice to those who hoped for more detailed feedback and instructions.”
Pietarinen points out that choir leaders do not usually have a chance to do this kind of work. When all the voices are resounding at the same time, it is difficult to distinguish the performance of any individual singer.
Choir members were allowed to choose how many songs they wanted to take part in.
“All in all, there were 80 singers, with about 50 of them contributed to each song,” Männistö says.
Community spirit and common language
Last summer, some of the singers met in person at the 40th FinnFest, a Finnish festival held annually in the United States. Since the first festivals featured choral performances, they were included in the program of the anniversary event in Duluth as well. There was an ensemble comprised of several different expatriate choirs as well as many singers from Finnish Expatriate Choir.
The choir leaders say that it was an almost earthshaking experience to finally meet people with whom they had been singing virtually for several years and whom they had gotten to know during the rehearsals’ coffee breaks.
According to Pietarinen, singing together brings a lot of joy to both the choir members and leaders. It also builds deep bonds among the participants. Männistö adds that the Finnish language is an essential part of the activities.
“There are even third-generation expatriates involved in the choir – especially from the United States – who rarely have a chance to speak Finnish in their daily life.”
Seamless collaboration
Pietarinen and Männistö say that their cooperation is seamless and provides support to both of them. They each have their own strengths, which are together so much more than the sum of their parts.
“We have a tremendous amount of ideas and seem to come up with more all the time,” Männistö says.
“When I suggested making a virtual album, it was wonderful that I didn’t need to talk Maria into it. Right away, she said, sure, let’s do it,” Pietarinen adds with a laugh.
The choir leaders extend special thanks to the Finland Society, the Finnish Lutheran Church of Seattle, the Finnish Seamen’s Mission as well as the Finlandia Foundation, which has supported the choir with a grant.
An exceptional choice
The Finland Society has selected a Finnish Expatriate of the Year since 1993. The honor is presented to a Finn living abroad or a descendant of Finnish emigrants, who has been particularly successful in their field. In this sense the Finnish Expatriate Choir is an exceptional choice – a number of people instead of one individual. The selection is not thoroughly unique, however. In 2017, the honor was given to Suomi schools around the world.
Why not join the choir?
If you’d like to join Finnish Expatriate Choir, please contact the leaders:
Eva-Christina Pietarinen: ecpiet@gmx.de
Maria Männistö: mhmannisto@gmail.com
FINNISH EXPATRIATE OF THE YEAR 2023
The Finland Society has selected as the Finnish Expatriate of the Year 2023 the global Finnish Expatriate Choir, led by Maria Männistö (USA) and Eva-Christina Pietarinen (Germany).
With its selection, the Finland Society hopes to draw attention to multi-locality and the importance of Finnish identity for expatriates. The Finnish Expatriate Choir is a masterpiece of cross-border collaboration. It connects Finns and friends of Finland living overseas, promotes Finnishness abroad and innovatively utilizes digital means in its work. In 2022, the choir released its own album titled Yli rajojen (Across borders).
The Finnish Expatriate of the year 2023 honor will be presented to the choir at an event arranged during the Year of Sivistys 2024. The Finland Society will provide more information about the event later.
The Finland Society has selected a Finnish Expatriate of the Year since 1993. The honor is presented to a Finn living abroad or a descendent of Finnish emigrants who has been particularly successful in their field.
Finnish Expatriates of the Year, as selected by the Finland Society:
1993 Robert Selvala, founder of the Finnish-American event FinnFest USA
1994 Mirja Bolgár, Finnish-French translator and author
1995 Arvi Tervalampi, Finnish activist in Sweden
1996 Karita Mattila, opera singer
1997 Jari Litmanen, soccer player
1998 Vieno Williams, Finnish-American representative of the great migration wave
1999 Mika Häkkinen, Formula 1 driver
2000 Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux user system
2001 Matti Salminen, opera singer
2002 Jacob Söderman, Parliamentary Ombudsman of Finland
2003 Kaija Saariaho, composer
2004 Erkki Toivanen, journalist
2005 Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor and composer
2006 Saku Koivu, ice hockey player
2007 Richard Impola, Professor Emeritus, Finnish-American translator
2008 Bengt Holmström, Professor of Economics
2009 Leena Pasanen, missionary doctor
2010 Helena Petäistö, journalist and author
2011 Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs
2012 Outi Hovatta, stem cell researcher
2013 Osmo Vänskä, conductor
2014 Bonita Pietila, TV producer
2015 Mark Levengood, journalist and author
2016 Suvi Kauranen, entrepreneur
2017 Suomi Schools around the world
2018 Mika Keränen, author
2019 Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
2020 Eeva Lennon, journalist
2021 Joy Wolfram, assistant professor, nanoscientist
2022 Susanna Pettersson, director general of Sweden’s Nationalmuseum, and Maria Sid, artistic director of Stockholm’s Kulturhuset City Theatre.