Spring has sprung…

Dear friends,

Spring is finally here, and after a long cold winter, I’m basking in the sweet perfume of blossoms and bursts of color and texture filling the trees and earth. I especially love reading Jamie Beck’s weekly Sunday Flowers email blast this time of year. Jamie is a photographer and former NYer now living in Provence, where she takes gorgeous flower portraits. It’s making me reminisce about our time in Provence almost a year ago now(!), surrounded by seas of red poppies and intoxicating honeysuckles, and farm-fresh strawberries and jam…

But just for a moment, back to winter!

Shawn and I spent the first half of February in Helsinki. I’m Finnish (if you couldn’t tell from my last name;) ) and a large part of that side of my ancestry traces back to the Helsinki region, so it was a dream come true, and I hope to return soon. As you could imagine, February in Helsinki is cold—we were a walking Uniqlo ad with our layers of HeatTech (a major game-changer—never will I leave the house in winter without it again!). See below:

But winter there has its magic: the beautiful snowy landscape above is on a sea fortress called Suomenlinna. We were also mainly amongst locals, since it was peak off-season. Stepping from a steaming sauna into the wintry Baltic Sea air was life-changing (and I don’t use that word lightly). Our travel for Shawn’s birthday happened to align with the Musica Nova Festival—it happens every other year, so we seized the chance! Helsinki’s new music scene is robust—we saw concerts featuring Earth Ears, Avanti!, Ensemble Recherche, organist Jan Lehtola, and the Finnish Radio Symphony, as well as a dance performance by Zodiak. Earth Ears played a piece of mine a few years back at Musiikkitalo—so surreal to finally see them perform there and meet them in person! We also got to meet up with my friend and composer Ville Raasakka, who’s doing amazing things.

We visited Nuuksio National Park, hiking over 10 miles in beyond stunningly gorgeous Finnish forestry. The vivid shades of green from the lichen and moss were so striking, as well as the tall, thin trees in abundance. Shawn got me a digital camera for Christmas as I’ve been getting more into photography, and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to take my first photos with it:

Nuuksio was perhaps the quietest place I’ve ever experienced—the kind of silence where you can hear inside your own body. We were some of the only souls in the forest (for context, it gets thousands per day in the summertime). We traversed the terrain on ice (with no snowshoes), including an extremely narrow, long plank of wood covered in ice, with freezing cold water beneath, also covered in ice. (No pressure.) We slowly but surely inched our way along, which from afar I’m sure looked hilarious. Leg day, check. We also saw a lynx, to the shock of all the lifelong locals we talked to who had never seen one, and said it’s an extremely rare sighting!

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is only a 2-hour ferry ride from Helsinki, and we went on a whim. Helsinki is relatively modern, whereas Tallinn’s UNESCO-protected Old Town feels like you stepped into a time machine. It was like an Easter doll house village, full of buildings in pastel pink, blue and yellow. We wandered the village, pin-drop quiet as it was an early wintry Sunday morning, until hearing distant organ music and singing. Following it to its source, we found this beautiful buttercup-yellow church with a door slightly ajar. A service was going on inside, with one of the most beautiful choirs I’ve ever heard.

One of our main reasons for visiting Estonia was making the composer pilgrimage to the Arvo Pärt Centre in nearby Laulasmaa. It’s intentionally remote—you don’t just stumble upon it. The journey, including a walk through the forest, is part of the experience, meant to quiet the world before entering this understated yet powerful space. Pärt was deeply involved in every aspect of its creation, from the architecture to the archives, envisioning a place of concentration, warmth, meditation, and purity (his words to the architects, much like his sound world). As is the case with most everyone, we don’t always know the whole story, and after learning about Pärt’s, I now hear his music differently. I’ve always loved it, but the context of his life and experiences added a new depth I hadn’t been attuned to before.

Finland has been named the “happiest country in the world” for eight years running, and talking to people there shed light on why. Less about visible joy, it’s more about a deep sense of contentment within a well-functioning society. Grounded in efficiency and collective well-being, there’s a strong sense of community anchored in mutual respect, trust and support; the communal priority of nature, fostering a strong daily connection with the outdoors; valuing the here and now rather than being caught up in the constant chase for what’s next or better; and the Finnish concept of sisu—the art of determination, resilience, and perseverance in the face of adversity. I was struck by how profoundly all this shaped daily life, felt from the moment we arrived. A societal model to aspire to.

On the plane back, we saw the snow-covered landscape of Norwegian fjords, right down to their curves and valleys meeting the water. Talk about magical…truly out of a David Attenborough-narrated aerial pan. A potent reminder of our planet’s breathtaking beauty, the importance of protecting it, and the vastness of what’s still out there to explore.

Since returning, I’ve been rehearsing for a big month of performances ahead with BlackBox, and recording an album with composer/guitarist/music tech specialist Matt Sargent! I’ve also been composing and choreographing for some projects I can’t announce quite yet, and rehearsing Sugar Vendil’s work antonym with Isogram, featuring me, Sugar, Cindy Lan, Marie Lloyd Paspe, and Annie Wang—here’s a fun little excerpt (apologies for the GIF format grain):

As I’ve been creating and performing, I’m trying to keep in mind an inspiring collaboration between NYCB principal dancer Sara Mearns and choreographer/dancer Jamar Roberts, focusing on reconnecting with that pure childlike passion in one’s art form that reality and hardship bring us farther and farther away from, but was once all we knew. I’m also trying to carry with me the resilience, perseverance and determination of sisu.

In Helsinki, Shawn and I spoke with an artist reflecting on many challenging years of their career. When we asked how they got through it, they paused and simply said, “I just kept going.” It struck me—hard in practice, simple in truth: the only way out is through. And in those times, having your people—your community—makes all the difference.

Until next time,

Annie

In other artistic news!

I’m deeply honored to have received The 2025 Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences for Music/Composition last month in the Foundation’s 25th anniversary year, part of a lineage of recipients including Attacca Quartet, Jeremy O’Harris, inti figgis-vizueta, Ashley Tata and so many others. Deepest thanks to The Lotos Foundation for this recognition as well as Greg Spears for the nomination—Greg has been a musical beacon for me as inspiration, friend and supporter!

Also thrilled to announce that BlackBox received The 2025 Mamlok Prize for Contemporary Performance! Huge thank you to the Dwight & Ursula Mamlok Foundation and Manhattan School of Music faculty for this honor!

Check out my upcoming shows below - 5 shows, 11 pieces, 4 weeks!