Over the summer, I traveled to Finland with a couple of friends for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, which was incredible. For the Finns, music is as important as eating, drinking, and going to the sauna. Basically music is a BIG deal there. More operas are premiered in Finland than any other country in the world. House concerts were common and the musicians were the best I’ve heard.
The photo below was taken at the Gulf of Bothnia around 11pm. We were above the Arctic Circle so the sun set only for a few hours before rising again. It was like this my entire trip!
The second part of my trip was in Isafjordur, Iceland where I stayed for a composer residency where I worked on my opera. I got to spend all day at the piano at the music school. It was unbelievable how I could concentrate so deeply. There was no static like there is here in the USA (so many wifi signals destroying brain cells). In Iceland I had limited access to wifi and internet, which helped me be fully immersed in composing. There was also 23 hours of daylight. I found that I did not need much sleep. I would go to bed between 2am-4am and wake up feeling refreshed and ready to begin my day. I did this for several weeks and never felt burnt out. It was vacation. I felt I was able to access a deeper realm of consciousness there, that I have not been able to access in everyday life. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. So many beautiful memories and beautiful sightings were experienced. There is nothing else quite like Iceland.