Gustav Mahler

"Minna Leinonen manages to pull off the most important requirement in writing an opera: to write music that perfectly merges with the other elements surrounding it but nevertheless retains its own voice. [- -] I would not hesitate to describe Alma! as a major breakthrough for Leinonen."

“When the quarantine was in full force, I couldn’t think of a day without music. We were listening to different types of music for maybe five or six hours a day,” says conductor Klaus Mäkelä. He spoke to Andrew Mellor about how and what kind of music has been sustaining him through the period of Covid-19, and what the connection with the audience means to him as a chief conductor.