Interview with:Tarja Turunen
In December Tarja will promote her solo album ‘My Winter Storm’ (release date 19th November) in Paradiso, Amsterdam. After the hype around Nightwish and her departure there is so much said in the media. ROD webzine decided to take distant and follow the journalistic ethics. Finally there is the change to give this artist some more attention. Her story about passion and fighting back. It is up to you to judge in a proper way. - Silvia Deurwaarder
Tarja Turunen will start this week with her own Christmas tour. It is her own idea to perform in some old churches in Europe. Every concert has their own songlist with some special songs. She is very happy to tell something more about the program. Her voice is light and you can hear the excitement. ,,The start is in Finland. The program of the evening include different songs. From classical church music religious songs and a more modern part. Songs from people I know like popartists. By coincidence I heard some songs of them and I was really touched and wanted to perform their songs also. There are some traditional Finish songs I will sing. So it is not only classical.”
The whole gig is acoestic. That means that there is no PA, no microphones: just the real voice of Tarja Turunen. She doesn’t make it easy on herself . It takes a lot of time to get into all the different songs.
"It is just me and my voice. There is a string quartet and a pianist. I use the local flutist, violist and other members from the quartet. Only the pianist will tour together with me. We come together one day before the concert to practice together. The pianist is a woman from Germany who I know from the time I was styding there. She is a very nice person and it is great to do something like this together.”
It is not just a concert for Tarja Turunen. No it is a special way to celebrate Christmas and to share that feeling. "My Christmas starts trough those concerts. For the first time I have the change to do that also outside Finland. It is the only way to start Christmas for me.”
Tarja talks easily about the preparations and the whole tour. She is full of energy, enthusiastic and has a good feeling about the shows:
"It is a real challenge for me. Although I have education for a long time. I started singing when I was 13 years old and all the time I am training my voice. The last few weeks I am very busy to learn all the songs and it is a real challenge to do this on my own.”
The whole gig is acoestic. That means that there is no PA, no microphones: just the real voice of Tarja Turunen. She doesn’t make it easy on herself . It takes a lot of time to get into all the different songs.
"It is just me and my voice. There is a string quartet and a pianist. I use the local flutist, violist and other members from the quartet. Only the pianist will tour together with me. We come together one day before the concert to practice together. The pianist is a woman from Germany who I know from the time I was styding there. She is a very nice person and it is great to do something like this together.”
It is not just a concert for Tarja Turunen. No it is a special way to celebrate Christmas and to share that feeling. "My Christmas starts trough those concerts. For the first time I have the change to do that also outside Finland. It is the only way to start Christmas for me.”
Tarja talks easily about the preparations and the whole tour. She is full of energy, enthusiastic and has a good feeling about the shows:
"It is a real challenge for me. Although I have education for a long time. I started singing when I was 13 years old and all the time I am training my voice. The last few weeks I am very busy to learn all the songs and it is a real challenge to do this on my own.”
When did you started to practise the Christmas songs?
“Just after the last show with Nightwish. It was hard to get on my feet again. It was not easy the last few weeks. The first week I started to practice I was very nervous, thinking that I didn’t have enough time. The people who are helping me with this tour are very nice, so I know it will be fine.”
When did you started to practise the Christmas songs?
Can you tell me moreabout the show?
“Every show has ten songs and that it pretty long for a classical concert. It is a bit hard to be alone, without the technics. With Nightwish I had a lot of technics and now I need to use my full voice. That is a great challenge. I have the feeling the songs are stronger when you hear my pure voice.”
“Every show has ten songs and that it pretty long for a classical concert. It is a bit hard to be alone, without the technics. With Nightwish I had a lot of technics and now I need to use my full voice. That is a great challenge. I have the feeling the songs are stronger when you hear my pure voice.”
After a moment of silence she continues: "After all this I started to think what Christmas means for me. The last year was very busy, so now it is time to share that feeling with the family. Now for the first time I can share the Christmas feeling also with my fans.”
Tarja sounds very enthusiastic and she laughs when I ask about how she found the locations and the musicians. "We have changed arrangement for the songs to make it more suitable for the instruments and my voice. The musicians are not the same at every show so everyone gives another interpretation to the song. That makes it so unique. For the location the most important thing is how the acoustics will be and after some research we found some nice locations.”
When I ask her to reveal some songs, she laughs and says: “Well I still have to make a good selection, but I definitely will sing Walking in the Air. It is such a special song and to do it in a church, acoustic, makes me shiver. That is very special for me. Also some classical songs like Bach. I want to have diversity in the songs, because I am not a one style vocalist...”
When I ask her to reveal some songs, she laughs and says:
Then she suddenly comes with a deeper motivation:
"I like to discover new singing techniques and to use my instrument in a special way. Every year I learn new things and that keeps me going. Every day I practice and try to get better and discover new ways… that is a big motivation for the future."
"I like to discover new singing techniques and to use my instrument in a special way. Every year I learn new things and that keeps me going. Every day I practice and try to get better and discover new ways… that is a big motivation for the future."
She hesitates when I ask her about the future.
“In the end of the year there will be a classical project with a Finnish tenor. I will perform with him on a Finnish festival together with the orchestra. I have some special offers, but I want to make a good selection.”
“In the end of the year there will be a classical project with a Finnish tenor. I will perform with him on a Finnish festival together with the orchestra. I have some special offers, but I want to make a good selection.”
After this it is time for Tarja to do some daily practices. On the official website some new tour dates for the end of this year are announced. A second Christmas tour will come and also a new album are planned.
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