“Music is maybe one of the most primal artistic expressions for humans. Maybe the first.” – Ghislaine Dionne
Text and audio recording: Elliot Kelly
Photos: Hans Eetu Myrskog
French-Canadian singer Ghislaine Dionne and Finnish-Canadian pianist Lili Ahopelto performed in June a pair of concerts in Sudbury and Toronto, Ontario.
The “Summer Magic” concerts began with Finnish pieces by Oskar Merikanto, Toivo Kuula, and Jean Sibelius, followed by a variety of musical styles from both Europe and North America.
Kanadan Sanomat, along with many other audience members, attended the Toronto performance, stayed for the coffee and pulla reception afterwards, and mingled with the performers. Listen to the full concert audio recording here.
For admission by voluntary donation, the audience heard a varied program that included classical lied music, opera, jazz, cabaret and musical theatre. It was a joy to hear Ghislaine’s flexibility in vocal timbre from captivatingly full and luxuriant to intimately gentle, and Lili’s expressive, nuanced technique that was both delicately coloured and emotionally engaging, which together made for a supreme musical experience.
After Ghislaine and Lili performed their last piece, Ghislaine’s ten-year-old daughter Catherine Mäntynen performed a surprise encore for the audience: Almirena’s aria Lascia ch’io pianga (Italian for “Let me weep”) from Handel’s opera Rinaldo (1711).
Kanadan Sanomat spoke with Ghislaine and Lili the following week about their lives and music in Ontario and in Finland.
What was it like performing your first Canadian concert together for a Finnish audience in Sudbury, Ontario?
Ghislaine: “Sudbury is my home town and growing up as French-Canadian, we’re kind of in a bubble…you go to French School, and your Catholic Church…and then we end up at Finlandia Village the [Finnish] old-age home in Sudbury, and it’s my hometown, but I feel like I’m in Finland all of a sudden because everybody speaks Finnish and there are Finnish flags everywhere and there is pulla and coffee…there is a reason why Finnish migrants went to northern Ontario because it looks just like Finland and it doesn’t take much to make it feel like Finland. When you come to Canada and perform for Finnish audiences, it’s allowing them to connect with their homeland.”
Lili: “I had just arrived with my parents from Finland to Canada and we were driving up to Sudbury, looking at the scenery outside, seeing signs all of a sudden in English, and we were all confused because we were like, ‘Oh yeah, we are in Canada right now!’ And then we were driving to Finlandia, having the exact same experience as Ghislaine.”
What were your earliest experiences with music when you were growing up?
Lili: “I used to go and visit my family [in Finland] almost every summer as a kid. It was always the same thing at family gatherings: lots of singing, everyone together making music. I started piano lessons before I was five and accordion lessons when I was seven.”
Ghislaine: “My family had this rule: If you didn’t sing in front of everybody, then you had to take part in the dishes… And I have to say, singing in front of the family when there are 70 people looking at you: That is a lot!”
Beginning last year, Ghislaine and Lili performed several concerts in Finland, including a program of Canadian women composers, another featuring music by the French composer Gabriel Fauré and his students, and a series of outreach performances in nursing homes and libraries featuring a variety of musical works. So when Ghislaine returned to live in Canada in the fall of last year, they decided that because they enjoyed working with each other, that they would plan for concerts in Canada as well.
Ghislaine completed an undergraduate degree in Piano, but later came to singing by way of an employee choir when she was working at Statistics Canada. Once she was called upon to take solos in the choir, she knew she would need voice lessons, and her voice instructor encouraged her that she had the talent to pursue a career as a professional singer, so she did.
Lili studied Piano at the University of Toronto while earning her rent money by busking on her accordion in Toronto subway stations.
Lili, how did that experience contribute to your musical development?
Lili: “Haha! It was crucial I think. It helped me realize that music doesn’t have to be so serious. I could just go into the street, go actually perform, and see how different types of music connect to people…that really helped me keep going during some hard times. Because I could just go play and have fun and connect with people and see how much it brings a smile to people’s faces when they connect to your music.”
Both Ghislaine and Lili earned master’s degrees at the Sibelius Academy, non-concurrently, after deciding to move from Ontario to Finland. Ghislaine for Opera Performance and Lili for Piano Performance.
How would you compare the classical music scene in Canada versus in Finland?
Ghislaine: “Classical music is so embedded in Europe. It is their art form. It would be similar to comparing hockey for Canadians. Everybody does it. Everyone has a favourite team whether they watch hockey games or not. [Classical music] is the same thing in Europe: They just breathe it. It’s part of their cultural background. Part of their language. Part of their traditions.
Lili: “Finland has a really great system for teaching music; I work in a Music Institute. It’s part of the educational system in Finland, it’s subsidized by the government. For a teacher, this is ideal: I don’t have to worry about the business side of things, and I can focus on the music and the kids. Whereas in Canada I would probably run my own music studio fully by myself.”
Ghislaine, what were your first impressions of Finland after arriving there for the first time as an adult?
Ghislaine: “When I first arrived, everything looked familiar except everything was made out of wood, and there were lots of old, pastel-coloured buildings. And I didn’t understand it until my first winter because then everything is SO DARK!”
I was a very proficient human being. And then I get there and everything is alphabet soup: These words that just go on forever… I would walk to the photocopier and just guess which button would copy the page. It was a very humbling experience.
The other thing that struck me was how quiet the Finns are… and I’m French-Canadian… I’m not quiet. And if you want to do French-Canadian recipes, then good luck. They don’t have the ingredients.
However, after living there for 15 years, Finnish life taught me how to enjoy silence, how to enjoy simplicity almost in a sacred way. Finns carry a strong façade, but underneath they are a deeply patriotic and feeling people. Finns have a complicated history, they have been through a lot, especially during their short life as an independent country and they keep quietly moving forward. It’s very admirable.
Ghislaine, you spent 15 years in Finland with your Finnish husband and your now ten-year-old daughter. What brought you to move back to Canada?
Ghislaine: “The big motivator for us was family. My husband doesn’t have a big family in Finland and they live far away. In Canada, the last thing I’m lacking is relatives—I think we are up to about one hundred people right now… My daughter can be more connected to her dual identity here, because the Finnish community is extremely active in Canada compared to the Canadian community in Finland.”
Lili, one of your first solo recitals included Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia on the program. Tell me about that experience and how it affected you.
Lili: “It was a very intimate performance for Canadian Friends of Finland in Toronto, where I gave a lecture-recital for Finnish Independence Day. Finlandia is a very special piece for Finns, and I talked about the background of Sibelius and the emotional significance of that piece. When I finished, everyone stood up and everyone was crying, and then even I started crying… The Finnish people are so connected, even more so the Finns living outside of Finland, they feel so patriotic to their homeland. I felt so proud of my heritage and proud to be there sharing the music with everybody.”
Through their music, Ghislaine and Lili continue to bring together the cultures that have shaped their lives. Their journey between Finland and Canada reflects the very nature of music itself: it crosses borders, preserves memories, and creates moments of belonging wherever it is heard.
Read the article in Finnish here.
Lue artikkeli suomeksi täältä.
