Finnish educator and scholar Pasi Sahlberg, Visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, discusses his book “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland”.
Sahlberg worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems and reforms around the world. His expertise includes international educational change, the future of schooling, and innovation in teaching and learning. His best-selling book “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland” (Teachers College Press, 2011) won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award and Sahlberg received the 2011 Upton Sinclair Award in the United States and the 2012 Education Award in Finland.
Sahlberg has lived in England (King’s College), the United States (World Bank in Washington, DC) and Italy (European Training Foundation in Torino) and has worked in 50 countries around the world. He earned his PhD from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) in 1996 and has been invited to speak at Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University and Vanderbilt University in the U.S. and in Parliament Houses in England, Scotland, New Zealand and the European Union.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and IASCE (International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Center on International Education Benchmarking and an Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Oulu. He is former Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) in Helsinki.
Sahlberg is known as an international “school improvement activist” because of his direct links to practitioners and their communities. He is active in social media and public debates about education. Follow him on Twitter at @pasi_sahlberg.
Join pianist Jonie Huang with cellist Daniel Mitnitsky, outstanding graduate students from New England Conservatory, for a performance featuring the works of celebrated Romantic composers such as Brahms and Schubert.
Qiuning (Jonie) Huang began her piano study at the age of six, instructed by Xiaofan Li and Yuanji Fan. At the age of 14, she won the first prize in the Liaoning First Teenage Piano Competition. In 2005, she was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Hung-Kuan Chen and Lei Zhu and received bachelor degrees in piano performance and electric keyboard. Ms. Huang continued her graduate studies in piano performance at Shanghai Conservatory with a full scholarship; she completed her masters degree first in her class and under the tutelage of Yiqi Sheng.
Throughout her career, Ms. Huang has studied with masters such as Arie vardi, Fu T’song, Russel Sherman, Gary Graffman, and Dominique Merlet. In addition to her expertise as a soloist, Ms. Huang excels in chamber music. She has adapted orchestra music for electric keyboard, regularly performs collaboratively, and served as a teaching assistant for singers and instrumentalists from 2009-2012. Moreover, Ms. Huang has performed chamber music with the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Shanghai Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Oriental Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Huang is currently pursuing her masters degree in collaborative piano at New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Vivian Weilerstein and Cameron Stowe.
About Daniel Mitnitsky
Born in Israel in 1987, Daniel Mitnitsky began his cello studies with Zvi Harell in Tel Aviv. Graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied with Zvi Plesser, and later served in the Israel Defense Forces as an Outstanding Musician. Daniel went on to study with Zvi Harell at the Buchamnn-Mehta School of Music, where he won the 2011 concerto competition and received first prize in the chamber music competition, graduating in 2012 with honors. Currently pursuing his Master’s degree under Natasha Brofsky and Paul Katz at the New England Conservatory as a recipient of the Edward Hyde Cox Presidential Scholarship and is a member of the Honors ensemble Veridis Quartet. Participated in festivals such as the Perlman Music Program and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Daniel is winner of the Rachel and Dov Gottesman cello prize in the 2012 Aviv Competition and has been a recipient of scholarships by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation since 2001.
“A beautiful documentary, To Breathe as One captures the power and inspiration of the festival and of voices joined en masse to be heard over past and present world events.”
– Marta Yamamoto, Contra Costa Times
In Estonian, the words “soul” and “breathe” come from the same root — “to breathe as one” means more than coordinated inhaling and exhaling — it connects souls together.
Every five years, 30,000 people gather on the same stage in the small country of Estonia to join
voices and sing in the National Song Festival for two days, becoming the largest choir in the
world. More than a music festival, it’s a miracle that at least twice in history gave freedom to
that country. To Breathe As One explores the beauty and meaning of the choral festival through
the eyes of the young members of the California-based Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir,
one of the few American choirs invited to participate.
Learning difficult songs — all in Estonian — the youngsters prepare for months and then set
off to join the many thousands from around the world who gather every five years in Tallinn.
Forming cross-cultural friendships that span the oceans, there they discover the unique role
that music has played for Estonians for over 150 years, as an integral force in maintaining
strength and identity for a people who have faced cultural genocide — more than once.
From the filmmakers of the acclaimed The Singing Revolution, the film reveals that for Estonians
singing is not just a means of cultural expression, but a defining part of their national identity.
Filmmaker Jim Tusty will be present at this screening.
Composer and pianist Heikki Sarmanto is a leading Finnish jazz scene figure who has been internationally praised for his symphonic, orchestral and jazz ensemble works. Sarmanto studied at the Sibelius Academy in Finland in the early 1960’s, and later at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he honed his piano and composition skills with coaching from Herb Pomeroy, Charlie Mariano and Margaret Chaloff. In 1970, Sarmanto was chosen “Jazz Musician of the Year” in Finland. In 1971, he was awarded top honors at the Montreux Jazz Festival in both piano and combo categories. In the 80s, Mr. Sarmanto was chosen by Sonny Rollins to arrange and conduct his “Saxophone Concerto.” More recently, Sarmanto’s collaboration with Brazil’s great lyricist, Fernando Brant, and the gifted guitarist-arranger, Juarez Moreira, resulted in the beautiful CD “A Lua Luara” featuring one of Brazil’s top vocalists, Claudya de Oliveira. Sarmanto has toured the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, and continues to actively expand his musical horizons. Porter Records along with Heikki Sarmanto and EMI Finland have begun to re-release a substantial body of Sarmanto’s previously unavailable early work for the enjoyment of jazz enthusiasts old and new. More details are available at www.sarmanto.com.
Singer, actress, and pianist Jeannine Otis has musical roots founded in the pure sounds of gospel, rhythm & blues and jazz. She is a graduate of Wellesley College where she was a Presser Music Scholar, the first and only African-American to win that award, and she also holds a Masters Degree from Emerson College in Boston where she was a teaching fellow. She first toured as a vocalist with the group Kool & The Gang whose co-founder, George Brown, continues to be one of her musical mentors. Another important collaborator and supporter has been saxophone legend Grover Washington, Jr. Her talents can be heard on the recording Do Dot, a smooth jazz classic she performed with Washington. Ms. Otis has also worked with trumpeter Donald Byrd, folk hero Pete Seeger, and Oscar winning film composer Eliot Goldenthal, to name a few. Her recordings include the recently re-released “Magic Song”, performed with the Helsinki Philharmonic. You can read more about her dynamic career at www.operaexposures.org/jeannine-otis/.
The SCC is proud to participate in Boston Design Week with a presentation about highly influential Finnish design company Marimekko offered by independent curator and researcher Susan Ward.
In the summer of 1959, Marimekko designs were introduced to the American market through an exhibition at Design Research (D/R), the innovative Cambridge home furnishings store founded by architect Benjamin Thompson. Marimekko fabrics and their dresses, dubbed a “uniform for intellectuals,” went on to enjoy phenomenal success in the U.S. (especially in the Boston area) over the next 20 years. Now, having recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, Marimekko is once again bursting onto the American scene, introducing new designers while continuing to make use of its rich archive of “classic” designs. In this informal program Susan Ward will discuss the history of Marimekko, D/R, and the local context, from the 1950s to the present.
Reservations recommended. Email Christina to reserve your seat(s) at cmealey@slcenter.org.
The First Annual Boston Design Week, a 10-day citywide design festival, takes place March 20-30, 2014. All events are open to the public, and most are free, but some with limited capacity require RSVPs, so claim your places early. Participating organizations, businesses, sponsors and individual designers are offering 80+ design events, exhibitions, speakers, receptions, behind-the-scene tours and activities throughout the city of Boston and its neighborhoods and in numerous other cities and towns. Don’t miss it!
A Finnish drama film directed by Antti Jokinen and based on the novel by Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen, Purge (Puhdistus) is the story of a tormented young woman who is given shelter by an elderly woman as they are soon reminded of their mutual horrendous past. 120 minutes. 2012.
This film includes harsh themes and sexually explicit and violent scenes; audience discretion advised.
Finnish and Estonian refreshments will be served after the film.
Duo Maresienne (Olav Chris Henriksen, Baroque guitar & cittern and Carol Lewis, treble, bass & lyra viols) share folk songs, fairytale tunes, dances and sonatas from the mountains to the cities of Norway. Lewis and Henriksen are two of America’s leading early musicians, whose unique repertoire and unusual range has led them to perform frequently in recitals individually and together, as well as with internationally acclaimed ensembles including the Boston Camerata, Hespèrion XXI, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Capriccio Stravagante, Waverly Consort, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Critics have praised Duo Maresienne’s performances, noting their “dazzling technical virtuosity and passionate playing of gut-gripping intensity”.
Minnesota Swedish-American fiddler Brian Wicklund hosts an evening of globe-trotting musical adventure. Brian is best known for his work in bluegrass music touring internationally as a sideman with many of the top bluegrass players in the country. In the last decade, he has returned to his Swedish roots through travels to Dalarna, Sweden to study the region’s distinct fiddle style. Brian will be joined by Boston-area Scottish fiddle master Katie McNally and guitar wizard Flynn Cohen – join them for an evening of foot stomping music and fun!
$20 advance ($15 students/seniors), $25 at the door ($20 students/seniors) Tickets
The story of the 42 year long relationship between legendary actress Liv Ullman and master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Just as Bergman has bewitched and bedeviled us with his films, one’s jaw drops hearing what he is like as a lover and a husband – both dreadful and also Ullman’s gloriously prized treasure of a human connection. 89 minutes. Norwegian/Swedish with English subtitles. 2012
Refreshments for attendees are served at 1 pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3 pm every Saturday.
Join us for a benefit concert in celebration of the arrival of our new Steinway B grand piano. Steinway artist Michael Lewin will play music by Debussy, Chopin and Schubert. Reception to follow the performance.
