Songs of Exile

October 3rd, 7 pm

The concert celebrates freshly released 'Songs of Exile' album, which is a Contemporary Classical song cycle composed by Maria Konoshenko (mezzo-soprano, pianist, composer) in 2024 – 2026, based on modern texts confronting war, forced migration, and political protest, by poets of Russian and Ukrainian origin. Scheduled for release on British Rezzonator Music label in September 2026, the album has been produced by veteran producer and Emmy-award winning UK-based composer Michael J McEvoy, who travels to Helsinki to perform at the concert as a guitarist / percussionist / sound effect designer. Iida-Vilhelmiina Sinivalo, an accomplished Finnish soloist, joins them on cello. The songs will be performed in Russian and in English, with introductions in English.

_{Maria Konoshenko is a young Helsinki-based mezzo-soprano, pianist, composer and a full-time researcher in linguistics of Russian origin, who left her home country in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, relocating to Helsinki in 2023. This personal and political rupture became the catalyst for Songs of Exile, an evolving body of work rooted in Maria's own experience of migration, guilt and protest. As a researcher, she works on tonal languages in multilingual environments.}

_{Michael J McEvoy is UK-based multi-instrumentalist, Emmy award-winning and Ivor Novello nominated composer, producer and songwriter. His label Rezzonator Music releases an eclectic range of genres from across the decades, including Rock, Jazz, Neoclassical, Experimental, and Film & TV soundtracks. In his ongoing Metanoisia project, he explores the relationship between music and Nature, making Nature a co-author of his music.}

_{Iida-Vilhelmiina Sinivalo is a Helsinki-based cellist and artistic researcher working at the intersection of classical music, contemporary performance, and improvisation. She actively collaborates with artists from diverse musical and artistic traditions in Finland and internationally, and has premiered numerous new works. Her work is guided by a deep interest in listening, and in exploring how the cello can become a voice across different forms of expression.}