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Avanti! thanks Kari Kriikku and looks to the future –

Changes to the artistic design of the Avant Chamber Orchestra

A new phase in the life of the chamber orchestra Avanti begins when the employment of long-time artistic director Kari Kriiku ends on 31 May 2024.During Kriiku’s 25-year tenure, Avanti has established itself as one of Finland’s most prominent performers of new music. Under his leadership, the orchestra has given a huge number of memorable concerts and performances. At the same time, Kriikku has created an extensive network of collaborations for the orchestra.

The termination of the employment of the monthly paid Artistic Director is due to financial reasons resulting from the changed operating environment. Kari Kriikku will continue as sound director of the Avant clarinet.

In the new situation, Avanti will focus on strengthening the financial sustainability of its operations and redirecting resources towards a more generous concert offer. At the same time, the orchestra is working to create a new artistic planning model and to strategically develop its activities and update its operating models.

The programme for Spring 2024 is designed by Kari Kriikki. Traditionally, the artistic design of Avant’s Summer Festival is the responsibility of a different artist each year, and the programme of the festival in Porvoo from 27-30 June 2024 will feature the voice of Czech composer and conductor Ondřej Adámek. In autumn 2024, the new Avanti Club, a series of concerts at the Cable Factory, will be launched, highlighting the orchestra’s players and collaborators as concert programme planners. A more detailed programme will be published in April 2024, with the first concert in the series on Saturday 17 August 2024.

Avanti is an orchestra and a community that is moving towards the new, believing in the original idea of working on the terms of music. The future of the orchestra is planned with the involvement of its current players, founding members and collaborators, as well as those of the future. Music will continue to speak, inspire and unite. Avanti! – Forward!

Avantin 39. The 2024 Summer Music Festival will take place in Porvoo from 27-30 June 2024, with composer and conductor Ondřej Adámek as artistic director.

Czech composer Adámek (b.1979) is known as a composer especially for his search for new techniques for classical instruments, which allows him to create the tone and form that is so important to his compositions. His strong interest in different musical cultures of the world can be heard in his orchestral, chamber, vocal and electro-acoustic works, which he has composed for several prestigious ensembles, orchestras and contemporary music festivals in Europe. Adámek’s compositions are also accompanied by the creation of new instruments, the most famous example being the Airmachine, a kind of air machine or musical instrument created with Carol Jimenez.

Adámek’s repertoire, designed by Adámek, includes a rich selection of his own works, conducted by the composer himself. The works give a broad overview of his work over the years – and the festival will also screen short films he has made.

The main concert programme for the Summer Music Festival is now published! The concert will again take place in Porvoo Art Factory’s Avanti Hall and Tehdassali, as well as in Porvoo Cathedral. The opening fanfare of Suvisoito will take place as usual at the Town Hall Square, kicking off the festival on Thursday 27 June at 12 noon.

The orchestra of the summer concert is the Chamber Orchestra Avanti! with Tami Pohjola, among others, as soloist. One of the most promising violinists of his generation, Tami Pohjola’s humble approach to music has delighted classical music audiences, and he has performed as a soloist with numerous Finnish orchestras. In the closing concert of the Summer Concert on 30 June at 18:00, he will be heard as soloist in Ondřej Adámek’s orchestral work Follow me. Adámek himself will conduct the concert. The concert will also feature a commissioned work by Avant from composer Pilar Miralles and will culminate in Antonin Dvořák’s Czech suite.

In January 2024, the stage of the Svenska Teatern was filled with the hot atmosphere of Argentine tango when the Avant and Svenska Teatern’s traditional Loppiaiskonzert took the stage with the Avant String Orchestra together with Maria Ylipää, Marzi Nyman, Niko Kumpuvaara and Ville Herrala. Ylipää & friends feat. Avanti!: Piazzolla wowed the audience and the applause was never-ending, and now this highly popular concert will be repeated on the Saturday evening of 29 June at 18:00 in the Avanti Hall of the Art Factory. The concert will feature Piazzolla’ s most beloved classics with arrangements for Avant.

The Avanti! quartet is one of Avant’s core ensembles. The quartet’s repertoire includes both quartet classics and rarities from the twilight of history, as well as exciting new contemporary works. The Avanti! quartet is known for its bold and open-minded approach to music and its captivating performance style. The Avanti! quartet’s concert at Porvoo Cathedral on Friday 28 June at 18:00 will include a commissioned piece by Avant from composer Tara Valkonen.

The opening concert of the Summer Music Festival on Thursday 27 June at 18:00 at the Porvoo Art Factory will feature a wide range of music by Ondřej Adámek. The concert will include Let Me Tell You a Story for soprano and orchestra, Whence Comes the Voice? for two singers and the playful Karakuri. Adámek himself will conduct the concert.

In the traditional Avanti! club, short films meet music. The audience will be able to discover the instruments created by Adámek in the form of short films and enjoy music performed by Avantti’s musicians. The Avanti! club will transform the Factory Hall of the Art Factory into an atmospheric club on Friday 28 June at 20.30.

An international masterclass for composers will again be held in conjunction with the Summer Music Festival. The final concert on Sunday 30 June at 13:00 will feature new works for Avant’s wind and string quintets by the composers who took part in the masterclass. The course will be taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen.

The full programme of the Summer Concert is available at www.avantimusic.fi.

Tickets for the Summer Concert are now on sale! Tickets are sold by lippu.fi.

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! has made an album after a break of more than ten years! The selected works by Lotta Wennäkoski on the Zeng album were performed in February 2020 at a concert celebrating the composer’s 50th birthday, organised by Avantti. In addition to the works I stället för vingar (2014-16), Hele (2018), Kuule II (2007) and Zeng (2018-19), the piano trio Päärme (2014-15) was recorded for the album. The collection provides a rich overview of Lotta Wennäkoski’s chamber music output – the Hungarian pediments of Zeng meet the emotional organ scores of Kuule II.

The soloist line-up on the album is impressive. Zeng features Lucie Horsch on lead guitar and Ville Syrjäläinen on percussion. Heikki Nikula plays the bass clarinet part II and the clarinet parts I stället för vingar. Virpi Räisänen performs the vocal part of I stället för vingar, Antti Ohjenoja on percussion and Timo Ahtis on double bass. Pianist Emil Holmström, violinist Eriikka Maalismaa and cellist Mikko Ivars make up the piano trio. The chamber orchestra works have been recorded under the baton of conductor József Hárs. The album features musicians who have played in Avant for decades as well as first-time professional musicians.

The album was produced by Laura Heikinheimo. She has worked as a recording producer for the Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2009 and her recordings have won awards from Grammys to Gramophones. The album was recorded by Enno Mäemets, an expert in the field, at Järvenpää-Talo and released by Alba Records.

The Zeng album will be released on Saturday 2.12. in connection with the Avanti! quartet concert at Suvilahti Tiivistämö. Four works composed for string quartet will be performed in this upbeat and atmospheric evening: the Finnish premiere of Pige by Lotta Wennäkoski and Flickereth, premiered in July, John Zorn’s Cat O´nine Tails and Michael Daugherty’s Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover for quartet and tape. The evening will start at 18:00 with a discussion with composer Lotta Wennäkoski and writer Riina Katajavuori. The discussion on intertextuality and musicality is available for the price of a concert ticket. The concert itself starts at 19:00.