Cultural bridge-building is the way to the other's heart, discovers Eric Walberg at this year's Finnish-Egyptian Cultural Bridge The first in a series of concerts as part of the 2008 Finnish-Egyptian Musical Bridge took place at Cairo Opera House's Main Hall on 24 May with a concert including Dvorak's cello concerto and Sibelius's first symphony with soloist Arto Noras and conducted by Ralf Gothoni. This is the second Musical Bridge, which takes place under the patronage of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and is supported by the Finnish embassy to Egypt and Finland's Savonlinna Opera Festival. Finland is taking a greater interest in the Arab world these days, and it has recently celebrated the publication of comprehensive Arabic-Finnish and Finnish-Arabic dictionaries. The Savolinna Opera Festival, founded in 1912 at Olavinlinna Castle in Finland, flourished before the First World War before going into a period of dormancy that ended with the Festival's re-emergence as a major international event in 1967. Since then, the Festival has grown into an annual event, each year attracting audiences of around 60,000 people, many of whom visit Finland specially from abroad. The 10-day Finnish-Egyptian Cultural Bridge is the brainchild of conductor and pianist Ralf Gothoni, who spoke to the Weekly about his interest in promoting East-West understanding through culture. Works chosen for the opening of this year's Bridge included a major work by Finland's best- known classical composer, Sibelius, whose works played an important role in the construction of modern Finnish identity, and Dvorak's well- known cello concerto, written in 1895 when the Czech composer was living in New York and premiered in 1896 in London. During the Finnish-Egyptian Cultural Bridge, "we are using the Savonlinna experience of working with young people, where the professors play with the students and not just teach them," Gothoni explained. "We decided to bring this idea to Cairo, where I have held piano master classes, and violinist Teeman Kupiainen is holding master classes for string players. He will play with Egyptians in the second of our scheduled concerts, featuring Mozart string quintets. Our third concert is of opera music, and Eija Tolpo is focusing on helping opera students to learn how to fill the empty stage, the space, with both sound and physical presence." Gothoni explained that the Musical Bridge was part of an attempt to help bring western classical music to Egypt, using techniques that might be thought to work here. "I have an enduring interest in East-West cultural exchanges," he said. "From 1994 to 1998, I organised the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing. In 2004 we organised a musical cruise to Luxor, bringing together 100 Finnish people from all walks of life -- politics, education, business, entertainment -- to try to promote broader cultural understanding beyond music. The Musical Bridge is really an outgrowth of this. "I consider Cairo to be the centre of classical music in the Arab world, and I hope to continue the Bridge to help Egyptians understand the beauty of our traditions. Nowadays people are losing their roots, with global mass entertainment resulting in a situation where there is no culture, or rather there is only a cheap monoculture. I am very keen to do anything I can to help nurture local cultures. "Though I am unfortunately too old really to feel traditional Arab musical culture, I still love it," Gothoni said. "I have long been passionate about Egypt and have many friends who are archeologists and historians. I am convinced that by looking back at our past, we can see the future." Gothoni said that he came from a family whose members were "immersed in music" and who were also interested in building bridges between the musical cultures and traditions of different societies. "My wife, Elina Vahala, is a violinist who has just got back from a concert tour of China," he said, " and my two sons are musicians, one a violinist, the other a pianist, and both their wives are musicians as well, one Korean and the other Japanese. My passion for the East seems to run in the family."
