A group of students at the University of Jyväskyläs Department of Teacher Education founded Seminaarinmäen Mieslaulajat (Semmarit for short) in 1989. The young men had a desire to do something of their own, something new and at the same time break the traditional boundaries of choral music. And so they did.
Reima Viitala, director of Semmarit, is himself slightly puzzled when he recounts the choirs history. The choir founded by a group of young students has grown into a phenomenon that has a reputation both in Finland and abroad for its highly original brand of male choral music. The road to success features a considerable number of milestones. In 2006 Semmarit won the City of Jyväskyläs annual Most Positive award. The choirs seventh album will go on sale in the spring of 2007. To handle the choirs business they have even set up their own company, the proceeds from which are ploughed back among other things into the high tech equipment needed for the show. Foreign managers, too, are now swarming after a hot property named Semmarit.
Well, yes...at the end of the 1980s we wanted to have some fun among our own bunch and breathe some new life into traditional choral music. At that time nobody could guess that this would develop into something so big, Viitala muses and recalls that the real breakthrough happened in 1993 with the appearance of their first album, when the Finnish Broadcasting Company was eager to play music from the Kuka on tuo mies (Whos that man) album.
Semmarit still has six members who were in the choirs very first line-up. Viitala is one of them. Semmarit consists of professionals from a variety of fields: teachers, trainers and experts in music, computer science and studio technology.
We rehearse roughly every third weekend from Friday to Sunday, so this is quite tough from time to time not only on the members of the choir, but also on their families, when you include the appearances we make, too.
This is not like a traditional choir, where the director chooses the music, but a case of all the members of Semmarit leaving their mark on a performance. Each of us is involved in making music: composing, arranging or writing the lyrics. Thats really our strength, Viitala goes on, likening Semmarit to a football team in which each player has his own clear role.
Semmarit gives around forty concerts each year in Finland. The two-week tour they make each year attracts in excess of 10 000 concert-goers. At the moment the opportunities to appear that are on offer far exceeds the ability of the Semmarit calendar to absorb them. Also part of the annual cycle are appearances abroad, for which they have a repertoire in English. Weve toured different parts of Europe and also the United States. In 1995 we represented Finland at the Rose dOr Festival in Montreux, for which we made our first TV programme in collaboration with the Finnish Broadcasting Companys TV2 channel. We got right through to the final, Viitala remembers.
Semmarits music differs considerably from traditional male choral music. Thats the idea, too. The show is always strong visually, a kind of interartistic package, not just choral singing. Producing different sorts of surprises is a key element of the performance.
Semmarit has honed and refined the technical wizardry required for these interartistic extravaganzas. In addition to music the show features dramatic elements and special effects: lights, smoke, video images, surprises... The art-mix elements demand specialists and the right technology, which makes designing the show much more challenging than a choral concert. Humour and a positive approach are enduring characteristics of their concerts, but occasionally the feeling is also taken in a slightly more serious direction.
As the members of Semmarit have grown older, the words of our songs deal increasingly with the difficult issues of life, too, such as childlessness and pair relationships. We want to give our audience an emotional experience that covers the whole spectrum.
Music lives through the individuals that make it, so Viitala believes that new subjects will find their way into the lyrics as Semmarits members accumulate life experiences. Through their music the boys-turned-into-men of Semmarit conjure up a very different picture of the Finnish male, Viitala deliberates.
--------
University of Jyväskylä - 350 students - Degree subjects: musicology, music education and music therapy - Basic and advanced studies can be pursued in all subjects - Masters programmes in Music Therapy as well as English-medium Music, Mind and Technology
Jyväskylä Polytechnic - The degree programme in music has a total of 300 students who qualify as professional musicians or music educators - English-medium Degree Programme in Music Management, 40 students in total Jyväskylä
Vocational Institute, Finnish Conservatoire - Approximately 60 vocational students - Vocational education in music to become a musician - Basic art education in music and dance, 1 600 students
Choirs Semmarit, Sirkat male choir, Vaput female choir, Cantinovum, Jyväskylä Musica choir, Vox Aurea, Jyväskylä Studio choir, Choir School (leader Ülle Kenner)
Orchestras Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, conductor Patrick Gallois Jyväskylä Big Band Loiskis childrens music orchestra Jyväskylä University Symphony Orchestra
Further information on the net
www.jyu.fi/mmt
www.braintuning.fi
www.jyu.fi/musica/cognition
www.jyu.fi/musica/sks
www.jamk.fi/english/kulttuuri
www.edim.info
www.jyvaskylasinfonia.fi
www.semmarit.fi/www/english
By Timo Sillanpää Photos by Sanna Heikintalo