What happens in Finland doesn't stay there when Daniel Gordon visits.
His encounters of a musical kind inspire the Plattsburgh State professor and Adirondack Wind Ensemble (AWE) music director and founder to transport his Finnish finds across the Atlantic.
The ensemble's annual winter concerts, Saturday at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and Sunday at the college's E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, do more than commemorate AWE's 10th anniversary.
The program, "Introducing Janne Ikonen: Compositions by the Finnish Composer," is also a celebration of Gordon's sabbatical research and collaborations with Ikonen and conductor Nikke Isomöttönen. It's also a monumental bow from Gordon to Ikonen, who gifted him with a concerto.
Ikonen, Isomöttönen and his wife and son, Anu and Anntto, attended last Saturday's screening of Robert Compton's documentary, "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System," sponsored by the Plattsburgh Educators' Study Group at Sibley Hall.
A product of one of the world's best educational systems, Ikonen and Isomöttönen's musical studies were an after-school activity accomplished during their free time and paid for by their parents. In Finnish schools, students receive a general musical education.
Isomöttönen started his clarinet studies at age 10.
"Earlier, I tried to play the piano," he said. "It wasn't for me."
In Finland, schools, generally, don't have band programs.
"The culture is different," Isomöttönen said. "We have more string players."
"It depends on the place where you live," said Ikonen, who started playing brass and percussion as a child. "There are private music schools and some other schools not specializing in music. You start training as a hobby."
Lessons for a year cost as little as 100 euros ($130). Included in the price is the rental of an instrument the student can borrow for the first two years. Afterward, students purchase their first instruments. For students whose parents cannot afford musical instruction, grants are available in the cities.
After graduating from high school, Isomöttönen applied to the Conservatory of Central Finland, Jyväskylä, his hometown, where he studied orchestral conducting and choral conducting.
Ikonen also studied there, graduating as a percussionist. He holds a bachelor's degree in music from the Sibelius Academy, where he studied composition. At the University of Jyväskylä, Ikonen also studied music education and musicology.
Both of their studies were interrupted by mandatory service in the Finnish Defence Forces. Sgt. Ikonen performs with the Savo Military Band in Mikkeli. In Rantasalmi, he has lived and worked since 2003. His wife is conductor/music educator/composer Marja Ikonen.
Isomöttönen is the conducting instructor at the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences, School of Music.
This weekend, he conducts AWE, a professional musical ensemble of very busy music educators, in a program featuring Ikonen's compositions, "Breath of Winter," "Echoes from Karelia," "From the Woods," "The Borderlands," "The Flaming Flowers" and "Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble." Gordon is featured as soloist.
"It's really exciting as a composer," said Ikonen, for whom the performances of "Concerto" and "Breath of Winter" are Western Hemisphere premieres.
"It feels good to have a professional ensemble and professional conductor perform your music. Finland is a really small nation. It's important for us to achieve something somewhere else. It feels really good and exciting to have concerts in the United States," Ikonen said.
It has been six years since Isomöttönen's first visit to the North Country at Gordon's invitation after his first 2004-05 sabbatical.
"I also feel very good," Isomöttönen said. "It's good to work with Janne (Ikonen) and Dan and the many people who play in the ensemble."
Every summer, Gordon visits the homeland of his wife, Irma Teittinen. If they had not wed, he would not have met Ikonen and Isomöttönen and had such exhilarating musical experiences: Jacques Ibert's Concertino da Camera with Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, Lars-Erik Larsson's Concerto for Alto Saxophone with the Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences String Orchestra, and Maurice Whitney's Introduction and Samba with the Jyväskylä Wind Orchestra.
"I feel like I discovered something in Finland," Gordon said. "Every time you go abroad as Americans, you get an earful what they think about Americans. What do Americans think about Finns? The only answer I can give is nothing. They don't think about it."
Remarks about education, cellphones and music may surface. Few people know that the language of the Finns is not Indo-European but has Central Asian roots distantly related to South Hungary.
"I met this wonderful woman," Gordon said. "We got married. I discovered this special place."
It's important to him to bring back what he discovers in Finland and share it here.
"(So) people can learn about this special place," Gordon said.
Email Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com
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