Conductor Masterclass of Jorma Panula, Kuopio 2002


The Net Communication Department of the Virtuosi — International Centre of Chamber Music in Kuhmo develops methods of documenting and analyzing music net education. During the years 2001-2003 Virtuosi and the Kuopio Department of the Sibelius Academy were running a regional development project. The work was done in cooperation with MOVE, the Music Education Online content project of the Finnish Virtual University.

The two partners set up a piloting framework between Kuhmo and Kuopio, with the necessary infrastructure, videoconference and computer equipment. Through a sound mobilizing strategy, this piloting structure gave birth to a number of exploratory studies. The case of enabling Jorma Panula's conducting masterclass at a distance was one aspect of the research and development work.

This is the recording of a video conference session performed on 20-08-2002, during the last day of Jorma Panula's conductor masterclass event at the Music Centre of Kuopio. The video conference experiments were produced by Matti Ruippo, who was also in charge of all aspects of the transmission from Kuopio. The undertaking is described in detail in a report by Matti Ruippo:

The transmission was encoded with an Osprey 210 capturing card, which was connected to the analogue outputs of a Tandberg 800 video conferencing unit. The VC unit in Kuhmo was connected to a similar machine in Kuopio with a dedicated 512 Kbps ADSL line.

The material represents the student side of a video conference based distance learning situation. Conductor Jukka-Pekka Kuusela of Sinfonietta Lentua took part in the course from the Kuhmo endpoint at Virtuosi.

The recording shows the organizer of the course, Rauno Tikkanen, who is conducting Sibelius' Symphony no. 2. The other students are sitting on the stage, while Maestro Panula gives his advice from the front row of the audience. The video is an unedited version of the recording, which is published for documentation, research and educational purposes only. All rights are being reserved.

— Ph. Donner