The theme of Avanti! Summer Sounds festival is Dreamlands and Dystopias – the main concert programme is now released

The theme of Avanti! Summer Sounds festival is Dreamlands and Dystopias – the main concert programme is now released

The 37th Avanti! Summer Sounds festival will again take over Porvoo as it runs at the Art Factory and its surroundings from June 28 to July 2, 2023. The main programme is now released and will be reinforced during the spring with forums and club events.

The 2023 festival is entitled Dreamlands and Dystopias. The programme is curated by composer Unsuk Chin and Maris Gothóni, the Belgian National Orchestra’s head of artistic planning and a curator of multiple festivals. The two describe the programme:

“We feature music by many fearless artists who challenge limits and question borders, music that can be equally thought-provoking, playful, and stimulating. Our wish was to present a glimpse of the great variety of the music of our time, with composers originating from no less than nineteen countries, including some of the most acclaimed figures of our time’s music and new rising composers. The music chosen reflects the visionary potential of music in times of uncertainty, featuring equally dreamworlds and dystopian fears. The concerts’ titles speak for themselves: ‘Dark Mirror’, ‘Musical Toys’, ‘Mimodramas and Horror Clowns’, ‘False Memories’, ‘Twisted Pearls and Four Headed-Nightingales’, and ‘Strange Rituals’.”

We will hear both new music from contemporary composers and classic pieces. Ensemble sizes will range from solos to orchestras over 40 musicians strong. Avanti! will have sopranos Faustine de Monès and Tuuli Lindeberg, flautist Bjørnar Habbestad and pianist Mei Yi Foo as soloists. Bas Wiegers and Emilia Hoving will conduct the concerts.

The week will include almost 20 Finnish premieres and the world premiere of Antti Auvinen’s flute concerto, commissioned by Avanti! We will hear daily Finnish premiers of works from the following composers: Unsuk Chin, Claude Vivier, Alberto Ginastera, Silvestre Revueltas, Sunghyun Lee, Hans Abrahamsen, Ondřej Adámek, Gérard Pesson, Marko Nikodijevic, Andrew Norman, Mikel Urquiza, Luke Bedford, Vito Žuraj and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. Other composers include Joseph Haydn, Heinrich Ignaz Biber, John Zorn, Jukka Tiensuu, Michael Daugherty, Helmut Lachenmann, George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Chris Paul Harman and Frederick Rzewski, among others.

A children’s concert has been a prominent part of Summer Sounds for years. This year Avanti! is producing a new version of the beloved folktale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” with the Red Nose Company, the first professional Finnish theatre group specialising in clownery. The music for the performance is composed and arranged by Marzi Nyman. The performance is bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.

The traditional Avanti! Club is again being held in the rustic Art Factory, Factory Hall. The event, titled Dark Mirror, includes music, an ecstatic club atmosphere in the summer night of Porvoo, and the Art Factory’s restaurant’s offerings to enjoy with friends.

Once again, this year’s festival includes a composition masterclass. The masterclass, taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räsänen, ends in a concert where Avanti!’s musicians perform pieces composed by the participants. The participants get to work on their compositions with the musicians while getting important feedback in the process. The main venue of the festival is the Art Factory, Avanti Hall. Concerts are also held in the Pernaja Church and the Art Factory, Factory Hall.

The tickets to the Summer Sounds festival will go on sale on Monday, March 27, 2023, at lippu.fi

The programme for the Summer Music Festival has been published

Dreamlands and Dystopias is the theme of Avant’s Summer Festival – several Finnish premieres in the programme

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! will once again take over Eastern Uusimaa, when the 38th edition of the orchestra takes place. The main concert programme for the festival has now been announced. The programme will be complemented during the spring with discussion events and evening events in the Avanti Club.

Dreamlands and Dystopias is the brainchild of composer Unsuk Chin and Maris Gothóni, Artistic Director of the Belgian National Orchestra and curator of several festivals.

“We have selected music from fearless artists who challenge and question boundaries, and music that can be thought-provoking, playful and stimulating at the same time. We want to showcase the diversity of music of our time. Composers from no fewer than 19 countries will be represented, including some of the most respected figures in contemporary music as well as new, emerging composers. The selected works reflect the visionary potential of music in times of uncertainty, and contain dream worlds as well as dystopian fears. The concert titles speak for themselves: ‘Dark Mirror’, ‘Musical Toys’, ‘Mimodramas and Horros Clowns’, ‘False Memories’, ‘Twisted Pearls and Four Headed-Nightingales’ and ‘Strange Rituals’.”

The festival will feature fresh music from contemporary composers as well as works that are already classics. The ensembles range in size from solo pieces to an orchestra of over 40 players. Avant’s soloists in Porvoo are sopranos Faustine de Monés and Tuuli Lindeberg, flutist Bjørnar Habbestad and pianist Mei Yi Foo. Emilia Hoving and Bas Wiegers will conduct the concerts.

The programme includes nearly twenty Finnish premieres and a world premiere of Antti Auvinen’s flute concerto commissioned by Avant. Finnish premieres will be heard on each day of the festival by composers including Unsuk Chin, Claude Vivier, Alberto Ginastera, Silvestre Revueltas, Sunghyun Lee, Hans Abrahamsen, Ondrej Adamek, Gérard Pesson, Marko Nikodijevic, Andrew Norman, Mikel Urquiza, Luke Bedford, Vito Zuraj and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. Other composers to be heard at the festival include Joseph Haydn, Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Lotta Wennäkoski, John Zorn, Jukka Tiensuu, Michael Daugherty, Helmut Lachenmann, George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Chris Paul Harman and Frederick Rzewski.

A concert for children has long been an important part of Suvisoitto. For the summer festival Avanti! together with Red Nose Company, Finland’s first professional theatre group specialising in clowning, will produce a new version of the beloved Emperor’s New Clothes. The music for Avanti’s musicians will be composed and arranged by Marzi Nyman. The performance is bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.

The Avanti! club, which has already become a tradition, will be held again this year in the rustic and atmospheric Tehdassali in the Art Factory. The club is called Dark Mirror and during the evening you can listen to music, enjoy the unique club atmosphere in Porvoo’s summer night and enjoy the cuisine of the Taidetehta restaurant together with friends.

This year, the festival will once again feature an international masterclass in composition. The course, led by composer Jukka Tiensuu and composer Tomi Räisänen, will conclude with a composition concert featuring compositions by Avant’s musicians. During Suvisoito, the students will be able to work on their compositions together with Avant musicians and will thus receive important feedback from the musicians while they are still working on their compositions.

The main concert venue for the Summer Music Festival will once again be the Avanti Hall at the Art Factory. In addition, concerts will be held in the Pernaja Church in Loviisa and in the Factory Hall of the Art Factory.

Tickets for the Summer Concert will go on sale on Monday 27.3.2023 at 9.00 a.m. Tickets are sold at lippu.fi

Avant’s spring opens with a vocal concert that has become a cult hit

The spring season of the Avant Chamber Orchestra will begin with the closing concert of the Musica nova Helsinki festival on Sunday 12 March 2023 at 19.00 in Temppeliaukio Church, conducted by conductor Michael Wendeberg and featuring soprano Juliet Fraser as soloist. The concert will include music by Clara Iannotta, composer-in-residence at the festival, and experimental music composer Alexander Schubert.

The concert begins with Clara Iannotta’s We left her in a sack for fairies to reclaim, based on a poem by Dorothy Molloy, and Iannotta makes extensive use of non-traditional sound sources such as cardboard boxes, styrofoam and various bells.

Alexander Schubert’s music represents a 21st century current, combining artistic heritage with elements of jazz, techno and pop music. His work is also characterised by the use of modern technology as part of the music. Point Ones is a work for small ensemble and “extended” conductor. The conductor is equipped with motion sensors that allow him to conduct both the ensemble and the live electronics at the same time. The piece is not conducted in the traditional way, but with gestures, which means that the piece is slightly different each time it is performed.

Skin, which lends its name to the concert, is a work for soprano and orchestra by Rebecca Saunders, who has now achieved cult status. The work is considered one of Saunders’ major works, with moods ranging from intimate fragility to explosive eruptions. The soloist is soprano Juliet Fraser, for whom the work was written.

The concert, and the festival as a whole, will conclude with Kirmo Lintinen’s Ballata concertante. The piece takes a peek into 13th century Florence and the secular winds of the burgeoning Renaissance. The work plays with its historical roots and a moment later recalls a contemporary perspective. Lintinen himself has compared the impression created by the work to that of a tourist of his time travelling to Florence to experience the art of the Renaissance.

Musica nova Helsinki closing concert: skin
12.3.2023 at 19:00
Temppeliaukion kirkko

Avanti! and the Finnish League for Nature Conservation

Avanti! and the Finnish League for Nature Conservation have started a cooperation in the form of the Idyllistä to disaster concert. Avanti’s biggest concert of the autumn will take place on 8 November at 19:00 in Merikaapelihall and all ticket proceeds from the concert will be donated to climate work through the Finnish League for Nature Conservation.

Commenting on climate change, the programme around this theme starts idyllically and moves towards disaster. The Avant Symphony Orchestra under the baton of József Hárs, baritone Tommi Hakala and the Otaniemi Kaiku male choir under Tapani Länsiö take to the stage. The concert will also feature interesting expert talks by Mikael Fortelius , Professor Emeritus of Evolutionary Palaeontology at the University of Helsinki, and Hannele Korhose, Research Professor at the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

The proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Finnish League for Nature Conservation through its work against climate change. Tickets for the concert are priced in four different categories, from which the audience can choose the amount that suits them best. Ticket prices range from €10 to €250, so that everyone has the opportunity to attend the concert and at the same time support the work against climate change. Ticket sales are now open. Join us to hear the music and words about the current state of the climate and do some good at the same time!

“Global warming can still be halted and its adverse effects adapted to. But it will require unprecedented social change. At the moment, we are heading towards a climate catastrophe. It threatens everything we love. Everyone is welcome to join us in working for a viable planet,” says Hanna Aho, conservation expert at the Finnish League for Nature Conservation.

Tommi Hakala has collaborated with numerous conductors and has performed major roles in opera productions at home and abroad, and has performed actively around the world. In this concert, Hakala will interpret two recitatives and an aria from Joseph Haydn’s oratorio Creation.

The ambitious and versatile male choir Otaniemi Echo, together with the Avant Orchestra, will perform Albert W. Ketelbey’s orchestral work In Monastery Garden. Other composers in the concert include Sibelius, Adams, Scriabin and Scielsi.

Tickets on sale at: https://tixfi.fi/fi/avanti/buyingflow/tickets/12219/7638