Urban escapist: Seppo Kimanen, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival founder

There are other projects on the boiler, including a plan to subsidize students from Russia and the Baltic states, who have until now been excluded from the festival's summer school. Kimanen also wants to continue Kuhmo's low-key winter festival, which brings together scientists and artists for mutually refreshing exchanges on the future of our planet - leavened, of course, by chamber music performances. He believes the worlds of art and science can have greater impact by coming together than by remaining apart. "The change in emphasis in society from the material to the immaterial can only be achieved if the two collaborate."

Such talk suggests that, despite 30 years on the road and a canny grasp of commercial reality, Kimanen has not lost his sense of idealism. His aim is to keep the festival at a manageable size, so that he has time "to go into the real essence of music."

Success in my mind is no longer outwardly measurable. I have the success I was hoping for, in the form of audience numbers and their happiness. I still enjoy giving people the chance to encounter great music, but from my personal point of view it's no longer the purpose of my life. There are so many composers, so many compositions and musical styles that I'd like to study. I've been to various cities and seen enough to make me go back and discover things properly. Now I want to do that in music, to do more intimate research, to go to the heart.

Andrew Clark is a freelance journalist from Scotland whose contributions on the arts appear regularly in the Financial Times of London. 1999 Financial Times Ltd. (July 16). Originally titled, "From cities to saunas and salmon:' Reprinted by permission.

Copyright American Scandinavian Foundation Spring 2000
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