Gamballa to Karelia 17.9.

17.9. 19.00 Porvoo Cathedral

Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Jukka Rautasalo, gamba and baroque cello
Anthony Marini, gamba
Louna Hosia, gamba and horn
Ilkka Heinonen, violone and horn
Matias Häkkinen, harpsichord

Purcell: Songs and Fantasies
Orlando Gibbons: Fantasies
Piae Cantiones tunes
Olli Virtaperko: Suite for treble tambourine n.s.
Olli Virtaperko: “Invitation” for horn, cello and soprano

Avanti!n Gambayhty and a cousin from Karelia
The violin became the queen of stringed instruments in the late 17th century, brilliant in its devilish skill and a soulful interpreter of singing melodies. But there are notes that the violin cannot reach. The viola da gamba ensemble plays as softly as the midsummer night mist on an English moor. The music comes from centuries ago, an equal polyphony where no one leads and no one sings.

Finland also has a tradition of knee-held stringed instruments, like the gamba. The Finnish bowman sings the ancient undertone of the Ugrian subconscious. Its unadorned and spiritual voice of truth has grown directly out of nature and the silence that surrounded the ancient Finns. Chamber music in which the English tradition of the exalted consort meets the obscurity of the Finnish log cabin.

STEVE REICH 19.8.2015

Musiikkitalo, concert hall at 19:00

 

Composing legend Steve Reich himself will join Avant in a concert featuring Reich’s lesser-known early work Pendulum Music, his new work Radio Rewrite and other works that have become classics. The concert is a co-production with Helsinki Festival.

Avanti! and Colin Currie Group
Thomas Djupsjöbacka, conductor
Marzi Nyman, electric guitar soloist
Timo Kurkikangas, sound design

Tickets 27,50 – 63,50 €

 

Avanti! 2014-2015

What is the hardest currency for both creative and performing artists? It’s inventing. Coming up with a great idea. Finding your own thing, so to speak.

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Dima Slobodeniouk designs Avant’s Summer Play 2016

Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk is planning the 31st Avanti! Summer Concert. The 30th anniversary of the Summer Festival, which ended on Sunday, attracted around 3 000 people to a total of twenty concerts or events in Porvoo and Pernaja. .

Moscow-born Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk is a very familiar partner for Avant. “Avant and Suvisoitto have been a really important source of inspiration for me and also a kind of school of creativity. I’m looking forward to experiencing, experimenting and realising the wonderful world of music together next year,” says Slobodeniouk. Planning for next summer’s festival has already started and the programme will be announced in spring 2016.

Dima Slobodeniouk is currently Artistic Director of the Galician Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular guest of the Helsinki City Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. With Avant, Slobodeniouk has performed in Finland, Russia, China and Austria, in addition to several concerts in Finland. Slobodeniouk has collaborated extensively with contemporary composers such as Kalevi Aho, Sebastian Fagerlund, Jörg Widmann and Lotta Wennäkoski .

The 30th Summer Concert, which ended on Sunday 28 June, was designed by German conductor-composer Matthias Pintscher. A total of 20 concerts or events took place in Porvoo and Pernaja over the five days, including seven free events around Porvoo. Festival buses again transported the public from Helsinki to the Art Factory and back.

Festival bus from Helsinki directly to Porvoo and back

Fast and cheap from Helsinki directly to Porvoo and back.
Departures from Helsinki in front of Kiasma from Mannerheimintie charter bus stop, return from Porvoo in front of Taidetehta.

GO BACK
Thu 25.6. 17.30 Kiasma – Kunstehdas 21.15 Kunstehdas – Kiasma
Fri 26.6. 16.30 Kiasma – Kunstehdas 22.15 Kunstehdas – Kiasma
Sat 27.6. 16.30 Kiasma – Kunstehdas 22.15 Kunstehdas – Kiasma
Sun 28.6. 16.30 Kiasma – Kunstehdas 20.15 Kunstehdas – Kiasma

One-way trip 10 €, including service charge.

Tickets at the ticket office and directly from the bus if there are seats left.

Summer Music pop up concerts in restaurants in Porvoo

Avant’s Suvisoitto will once again be visiting restaurants in Porvoo. Come and see what the music tastes like in an idyllic restaurant setting! The concerts are free of charge.

Fri 26.6.

approx. at 13.30, For example (Rihkamakatu 2)
Clarinet Trio

ca. 14:00, Restaurant Timbal (Jokikatu 43)
Bassoon Trio

approx. 15.30, Café Cabriole (Piispankatu 30)
Pasi Eerikäinen, violin and Emil Holmström, piano

Sat 27.6.

approx. 16:00, Wanha Laamanni (Vuorikatu 17)
Käyrätorvikvartetti

Sun 28.6.

approx. 13.30, Restaurant Fryysarinranta (Jokikatu 20)
Kati Kuusava and Anna-Leena Haikola, violin, Tuula Riisalo, viola and Sami Mäkelä, cello

 

Maati Rehor appointed as Avant’s new Executive Director

Maija Kylkilahti, who has been Avant’s Executive Director since 2012, will take over as the Helsinki Festival’s classical music producer on 1 August and has been replaced by Maati Rehor, Master of Music. Rehor has been working in the music industry for 20 years, first as a musician and vocal teacher, then in various production positions, including at the Sibelius Academy, for concerts, tours and festivals, as well as in productions for domestic and international professional events. Rehor joins Avanti from the position of Executive Director of the Finnish Jazz Federation, a position he has held since 2008.

Avanti warmly welcomes Rehori to the team!

 

YLE #culturalinterview: avanti!

“Art is a language that everyone understands. It connects people, countries and nations. Art should be everyday. The right to art belongs to everyone. The autonomy of art must not be compromised.” Raija Vahasalo, Member of Parliament.

Watch Avant’s video commentary on Vahasalo’s reflection .

XXX SUVISOITTO 24.-28.6.2015, artistic designer Matthias Pintscher

Avant’s Summer Play celebrates its 30th anniversary on 24-28 June 2015. This year, the five-day music event will be artistically designed by German conductor-composer Matthias Pintscher. The festival programme, subtitled “Idyll” , includes 14 concerts or events. The Avant-garde will also perform in restaurants in Porvoo and new club nights will entertain after the concerts.

Dialogue between new creation and tradition in the programme

Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971) has been one of the most interesting names in contemporary German music since the beginning of his career. In XXX Suvisoito, Pintscher appears as composer, designer and conductor. The aim was to create an ensemble that looks like Avant, but celebrates the orchestra by bringing something new to the table again.

“With the selection of works I bring to Porvoo, I want to highlight the healthy dialogue between new creation and tradition. Mozart’s Gran Partita will be performed alongside works whose scores have not yet dried out,” says Pintscher about the artistic design of the programme. “What is the role of ‘new’ music today? After all, the score of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 was also earth-shatteringly ‘new’ in its day!”

Matthias Pintscher was a guest composer at Avant’s Summer Play in 2006. An integral part of Pintscher’s compositional profile is musicianship and conducting: “My thinking as a conductor is fed by what I compose and vice versa”.

Pop-up concerts and club nights complement the Suvisoito programme

“The idyll is analysed as a phenomenon and the question is posed as to our role as active artists in a world where we are surrounded by terror, war and injustice”, Matthias Pintscher explains the theme of Suvisoito.

At the opening concert on 25 June, Pintscher will conduct Avant in the Arts Centre in works that in different ways align with the orchestra’s Suvisoitto tradition. Pintscher will be joined by Magnus Lindberg and Hannu Lintu as conductors of Suvisoito.

Six works by Matthias Pintscher will be performed during the Suvisoito. The beauty and pain of life will be the theme of the closing concert on 28 June, featuring Idyll, composed by Pintscher. It will end with Mahler’s Maan laul (Song of the Earth), with mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivias soloist.

Other soloists include Pekka Kuusisto, violin, Emanuele Torquati, piano, Tuomas Katajala, tenor, Tomas Gricius, trumpet, Ville Hiilivirta, French horn, and Valtteri Malmivirta, who will play the solo part in the premiere of the trombone concerto composed by Jouni Kaipainen, representing the latest music of Suvisoito.

There will also be a composition workshop for young composers, a children’s concert, pop-up concerts in Porvoo’s restaurants and new club nights hosted by Tero Toivonen, accompanied by Marzi Nyman and her friends. Festival buses will take concert-goers from Helsinki to the concerts and back.

The concert venues are Avanti! hall and Tehdassali in Porvoo Art Factory, Pernaja Church, Culture House Grand and Porvoo Little Church.

Check out the full programme!