Jaska-Award

Jaska Award

The orchestral musician's ability to cooperate and adapt to the work community, having a positive mood and exhibiting good comradery are qualities that cannot be measured in auditions. These traits however have a great impact on the general atmosphere of the workplace and therefore have an effect on the mood of the ensemble. In an orchestra where its members are physically very close to each other, the prevalent atmosphere present among them is easily sensed.

HelMu wanted to draw attention to this issue, and thus a scholarship called the "Jaska" Award was founded almost twenty years ago. At this time, HelMu's then chair, Jussi Särkkä, first drew attention to the Board regarding this. In the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at the time, but sadly no longer with us, was Jaakko Santasalo, a second violinist who had the wonderful ability to always see the silver lining in even the darkest cloud. He was thus able to lift up the spirits of those around him on a very regular basis. His was an attitude toward work and life which served as an inspiration well worth emulating. 

This thought of awarding musicians in this spirit was developed further, and the name "Jaska", a nickname version of "Jaakko", was used as the working name of this idea. The name stuck. The first Jaska Prizes were awarded in December 2001.

The prize amounts to 500 euros per recipient. The winners are chosen annually together with the orchestra delegations as well as the board of HelMu. The award criteria are: good comradery, an eagerness to create and maintain a good atmosphere at work as well as other factors that boost the workplace atmosphere.

The prize is presented every year by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera Orchestra and the freelance musician members of the Helsinki Musicians Union. Every other year, it is also awarded by the Tapiola Sinfonietta.