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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart.

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That's Symphony No. 2 by Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. It will be performed at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall this weekend led by a fellow country person conductor, Dalia Stasevska. No, that's not a Finnish last name. It's Ukrainian. Not only is she a conductor, she's been involved in getting aid to her birth country of Ukraine where she lived before moving to Finland at five years old.

Conducting is a traditionally male-dominated field. In the US, for example, according to the New York Times, in late 2021, among the 25 largest orchestras, there was not one with a female music director. Dalia Stasevska is bucking that trend as the principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Finnish Lahti Symphony Orchestra.

This season, she'll have 11 symphony debuts around the world, including in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. She'll conduct three concerts this Friday through Sunday at Lincoln Center, featuring the music of Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and a world premiere of a piece by Chinese-born composer, Wang Lu. Dalia Stasevska joins me now. Welcome to the studio.

Dalia Stasevska: Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: 11 different debuts. What is different for you in your preparation when you're working with an orchestra that's new to you?

Dalia Stasevska: I have only one recipe, just be yourself. Just be yourself and do the best that you know enjoy the ride. I think it's worked so far for me.

Alison Stewart: It's so interesting you used the word enjoy. What is it that you enjoy about the ride when you say enjoy the ride?

Dalia Stasevska: Well, I am conducting world best orchestras with phenomenal colleagues, conducting amazing music. You have to enjoy it, and this is what I'm doing.

Alison Stewart: One of the pieces you'll be conducting was that piece that we just heard, a piece of Jean Sibelius. He once reportedly called it a, quote, "Confession of the soul." Several fans, I think, it was on Instagram or Facebook, liked it when you said you referred to the piece as The Italian.

Dalia Stasevska: Yes.

Alison Stewart: How do you describe that piece and why do you describe it as The Italian?

Dalia Stasevska: Well, because Sibelius composed mostly, it, in Italy. It was quite interesting the history of this piece because a few years before that, he had a really big personal tragedy. One of his daughters died as a very young child and it was a really big hit to their family. Apparently, for example, they used to have with his wife, Aino, a letter exchange, very active at those times. They never mentioned a word of it. It was so painful to them.

I think it was his friend who said, some year after this tragedy in the family that you need to get a new start. You need to look forward, and he said, "Why don't you go with your family to Italy?" They gathered money for him somehow, and he went with the whole family to Italy. I love this one quote that he wrote to his friend. He was so excited about being in Italy. He said, "Even the ugly is beautiful here." So much, he enjoyed.

I feel that because he started to write this symphony while being on this trip, there's some kind of a new light in it. There's some Italian warmth and sunshine. I always think that the beginning, when you hear the string starting, [sings] pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, it's like his heartbeat, heartbeat for something new. He's ready to turn the page. He's ready to embrace life and search for new ways as a composer, as a human, and there's some positivity there.

Of course, the second movement is he goes there in quite dark places and it's almost like a diary. It's very fragmented and sometimes you even don't understand, what is it going about? He's still processing his life, but then at the same time when you hear the finale, there's almost this pathos, like, "I'm going to go towards the light and something new, exciting," and there's so much of joy and positivity in it. I think the Italian sun helped it, and probably good pasta also.

Alison Stewart: Probably. The way you described it was so interesting to listen to you describe, and also to watch you. I had the benefit of getting to see you describe it. You just told me a story through describing how he wrote this music, and not just about how beautiful the music is, but the story behind the music. I'm getting a sense that that's important to you as a conductor. The story behind the notes.

Dalia Stasevska: Yes, of course, when I start to study any score, let's say, a symphony, you can study, of course, the notes and understand that this is great work, but I think the most challenging is always to crack the narrative. To really step into the boots of the composer and try to go to his world, what he wanted to say with this. It's always has been fascinating to try to find and discover the life, the circumstances because we are, how do you say, psychophysical holes. Everything affects us.

When somebody has a such a talent to put it in music, in notes, of course, it brings it to the next level. Sibelius, I think, is a very narrative-driven composer, and his life and his music, they very much go hand in hand. Sibelius is one of my favorite composers and I feel almost like a child in a candy shop every time I open his scores because there's so much to discover every time.

He's so honest, always, very honest composer. At the same time, somebody said once so beautifully about his music that it's you go in the water and you see a fish and you try to catch it with your hands, but you don't manage it because there's an optical illusion. It means that it's so close and so far at the same time. I think it's really beautifully described his music and his personality and everything, so it's endless discovery from me and a long friendship.

Alison Stewart: Sibelius is quite famous. Is there a Finnish composer who perhaps is not as famous that you'd like people to know more about?

Dalia Stasevska: Well, I think Einojuhani Rautavaara, he's quite well-known in America. One of the contemporaries whose music I adore to bits is Kaija Saariaho, one of the most famous female composers now living. This is somebody who I really recommend to listen to and she especially is famous for writing beautiful operas.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Dalia Stasevska. She's a conductor. She will be at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall this upcoming weekend. The story goes, you were introduced to classical music by Puccini's Madame Butterfly. You were about 12 years old. What, to 12-year-old you, was so exciting about that piece of music?

Dalia Stasevska: It was something that I never heard before because up till then, I was just practicing violin, and then suddenly, I hear completely this new art form. I hear orchestra. I didn't know that this instrument even exists, so it really blew my mind. Of course, Puccini's music is to die for. It's just so good and being in this young teenager and listening to this dramatic story, it just caught me completely.

Also, that was important moment because this is the moment when I fell in love with music also, because up until then I was just a kid who was basically forced to go to violin lessons, let's put it like that. There was no--

Alison Stewart: Very honest of you.

Dalia Stasevska: Yes. It was not like emotions for or against, it was just something routine that you did. Growing especially in the family of two painters and artists, so art was very a big part in our family household, let's say like that. That piece of music made me fall in love with music and classical music and made me think that, actually, I maybe want to do it. It came from myself, and quite soon after that, I went to the headmaster of our small conservatoire, and I asked him that, "Can I join any-- Is there any orchestras around?" I joined the school orchestra string orchestra quite soon and then I also started to go every single weekend to concerts. That's how it started.

Alison Stewart: Seeing live music is a way, it's a life-changing experience.

Dalia Stasevska: It is. It is. It's also, what I find important, it was not that somebody brought me, I found it myself. It was quite strange that our parents, though they appreciated classical music, we never went to concerts. That piece of music of Madame Butterfly, it also made me to go to concerts. Sometimes, it's important to discover yourself and your passion, that is not something that you have to do, but you go there because you want to do it yourself.

Alison Stewart: Correct me if I'm wrong. This morning, you had your first rehearsal of the piece that'll have its world premiere.

Dalia Stasevska: It'll be tomorrow.

Alison Stewart: Tomorrow, it will be.

Dalia Staveska: Yes.

Alison Stewart: It's called The Surge by Wang Lu. What is interesting about this piece to you?

Dalia Stasevska: Well, what is exciting about any premiere is that, until you hear it, you don't know what it is. It's like a new baby. I think tomorrow I can tell a little bit more. This piece is inspired by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius and the big symphonical lines. It's six minute long, so it has a lot of drama. I'm looking forward, how it will sound tomorrow.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Dalia Stasevska. She's a conductor. She will be at David Geffen Hall this weekend. We mentioned on the-- I touched on this in the introduction. You were born in Kyiv, moved to Finland when you were around five years old, and you have been very active and trying to help the people of Ukraine. Would you share a little bit of the work that you've been doing?

Dalia Stasevska: When Russia attacked Ukraine, it was clear for me that I need to help Ukraine and Ukrainians. I understood also that this is really serious, this full-scale war and invasion. I think it was in the second or third week of the war when we had this group WhatsApp call with my two little brothers. One of them was in Kyiv at the time, so it was quite personal. Also this. One was in Finland, and we agreed together that we need to start gathering money, collecting money, and buying anything that is necessary for Ukrainians.

At the beginning, we gathered around €10,000 just with ordinary people dropping money for us. We just published on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter who we are and what is our plan to do and that we have a couple of volunteer organizations that we work with and we want to help Ukrainians. It was around March and April that we managed to put together our first relief load. It was only food, and we brought it to Mykolaiv. That was, at the time, one of the most bombed cities in eastern Ukraine. We figured out that city because my brother visited it, and he was completely heartbroken to see what Russia has been doing to the city.

They didn't have electricity nor running water, nothing there. At that time, it was so beginning of the war and chaotic, so they needed a lot of food. We did, and it went so well, so we thought that we have to continue it. Since then, we have done around seven relief loads. A couple of them I have driven myself to Ukraine to deliver personally.

Alison Stewart: I read that.

Dalia Stasevska: My brother has also delivered a few of them. The last time I visited Ukraine, it was two months ago. We usually buy trucks or these big vans, and fill it with everything that they need. The last time when I was there I filled it with 10,000 woolen socks.

Alison Stewart: Wow.

Dalia Stasevska: Sleeping bags, warm clothes, boots, some other things.

Alison Stewart: It's amazing. You're able to do all this in the middle of this enormous year for you professionally. I really admire that.

Dalia Stasevska: It's become, life is very intense at the moment because I use all my free time to just help Ukraine and work on this, our project. Of course, those weeks that I've been to Ukraine, they have been my free weeks. Now, during Christmas time, we collected €100,000 and now we just ordered 200 stoves that we are going to bring in two weeks to Ukrainians to give warmth to people in those areas where they don't have electricity.

Alison Stewart: Well, first of all, I, again, really admire you for your extraordinary work, both personally and professionally, and for helping other people. Dalia Stasevska will be at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall. She will be conducting a piece by Tchaikovsky, which we will go out on. Dalia, thank you for coming and visiting us with all that you doing. We really appreciate you coming to the studio.

Dalia Stasevska: Thank you for having me.

Alison Stewart: Also, did you see Tara?

Dalia Stasevska: No, not yet. It's not yet shown in Europe, so I need to see it here.

Alison Stewart: Dalia, thank you.

Dalia Stasevska: Thank you.

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