“Hand Concerto” at Black Box Music Avant in February

Avanti! will perform Danish composer Simon Steen-Andersen’s Black Box Music (2012) in February as part of the Musica nova festival. The Nordic Music Council award-winning work features videoed hands appearing from behind a puppet-like curtain, leading a live orchestra of 15 musicians spread out around the audience. The hands are the conductor and soloist of the performance, and their stage – a black box – is also one of the instruments. Norwegian percussionist Håkon Stene will be the “hands soloist” commanding Avant.

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With pleasure, Avanti! – Feeling Free at Musiikkitalo 18.9.2020

The concert has been moved from spring to Friday 18 September 2020. To allow for safety gaps, the audience will be divided into three performances at 13, 14:30 and 16.

To allow for safety gaps, the audience will be divided into three performances and the concerts will be held at 13:00, 14:30 and 16:00. All customers must exchange their tickets for new seats free of charge at the Music Hall ticket office or by calling 020 7070 437 Mon-Fri 9-11 on weekdays. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please contact Musiikkitalo as soon as possible to confirm your new seat for the performance at the time of your choice. Seats will be allocated as they become available and old tickets will not be accepted. Serial ticket holders will also need a new ticket for this concert.

The duration of the concert is 1 hour, no intermission.

House of Music

With pleasure, Avanti! – Feeling Free
18.9.2020 at 13.00, 14.30 and 16.00
Music House, Paavo Hall

Guitarist Marzi Nyman, vibraphonist Arttu Takalo and French horn player Tero Toivonen join forces again with the Avant String Quartet. The concert’s repertoire, consisting mostly of compositions by the soloist trio, is a juicy fusion of jazz, classical and popular music. As has been said before about this septet: nothing is what it seems, but everything is what it sounds.

Guitarist Marzi Nyman is known as an incredibly versatile musician. Over the years, Nyman has played guitar in leading jazz bands, composed orchestral works, worked for television and film, and served as conductor of the Espoo Big Band. Nyman has collaborated with Avant several times and at the 2018 Summer Festival Nyman performed as organist together with soprano Anu Koms.

Multi-talented vibraphonist and composer Arttu Takalo came to prominence in the XL band founded by Jarmo Saari, and has also been heard in many other bands and touring ensembles. As a composer who combines styles, Takalo has written music for big bands, chamber and symphony orchestras and arranged music for Ismo Alango, among others. Takalo has released several solo albums, most recently L’Alliance Takalo in 2017.

Tero Toivonen is a versatile musician who plays in the Tapiola Sinfonietta, works as a lecturer of French horn music at the University of the Arts, and is the sound director of the Avant Chamber Orchestra and the Vantaa Entertainment Orchestra’s French horn section. In addition, Toivonen regularly collaborates with rhythm music professionals both in the studio and on concert stages. As a doctor of music, Toivonen has also specialised in public work, which she has done especially with young people all over Finland.

The concert is part of the AUF series, a collaboration between Avant, the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO). Top orchestras from different genres invite listeners to a day-long concert to discover a wide range of musical delicacies.

Marzi Nyman, guitar
Arttu Takalo, vibraphone
Tero Toivonen, French horn
Maija Linkola, violin
Mikaela Palmu, violin
Tuula Riisalo, viola
Iida Vilhelmiina Sinivalo, cello

Changes to the AUF concert on 15.9.2020 at Musiikkitalo

The joint concert of three top orchestras – Chamber Orchestra Avant, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra FiBO – at the Helsinki Music Centre on Tue 15 September will undergo changes to ensure a safe concert experience for the audience, musicians and staff alike.

The concert’s intermission and pre-registration will be cancelled. The concert starts at 19:00 and ends at approximately 20:30.

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra’s repertoire will be changed and the size of the orchestra will be reduced to allow for a performance without intermission and to allow for safety clearances for the musicians in the backstage area. The Avant and FiBO programmes will remain unchanged. Read more details about the programme below.

The seating in the auditorium is on a safety row, with only a very limited number of concert tickets sold in the hall. For this reason, anyone who has previously purchased a ticket will need to exchange their ticket. Customers can exchange their tickets for new seats free of charge by visiting or calling the Music Hall ticket office.

  • The Music Hall ticket office is available by phone for ticket exchanges on weekdays Mon-Fri 9-11 at 020 7070 437. Call rates: from a landline 8,35 cents/phone + 7,02 cents/min, from a mobile phone 8,35 cents/phone + 17,17 cents/min, from abroad standard international call rates. A ticket exchanged by phone will be delivered as an e-ticket to your e-mail.
  • On-site ticket sales at the Music Hall are open on weekdays Mon-Fri 9-18 and Sat 10-17.

More information about the event

Security instructions for the Music Hall

 

How does a recycled refrain sound on a foley artist’s kiosk, what does Vivaldi sound like in a minimalist remix version and what links can be found between the works in the concert and the world of cinema?

UMO Helsinki Duo and film music from two eras

The original repertoire of the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra will change. Instead of a big band ensemble, the duo Kasperi Sarikoski (trombone) and Seppo Kantonen (piano) from UMO Helsinki will perform film music from two different eras.

The UMO Helsinki Duo will open the concert with Bob Telson’s Calling You (1987) from the film Bagdad Cafe. Originally recorded by Jevetta Steele and later covered by Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, Paul Young and others, this delicate ballad is reborn in a union of trombone and piano.

From bazaar ballad to 1920s jazz with Black and Tan Fantasy (1927) by Duke Ellington and James “Bubber” Miley. This early Ellington work, in which Miley’s melodic ideas are unleashed, was later used in the short film Black and Tan.

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! and the world’s first foley concert

Sami Klemola’s composition Jack and the Specifics is written for foley artist and chamber orchestra. The composer explains: “Exploring the interfaces and points of contact between the arts has long been an interest of mine. The combination of the sound arts, sound art (broadly speaking) and concert music, creates interesting friction situations, with the friction that forms at the interfaces providing energy, intensity and new directions for my compositional work.”

The work is reportedly the first time that the solo parts of a concerto have been written for a foley artist, in this case Heikki Koss. Kossi is a sound artist who creates soundtracks for films, including footsteps and creaking doors. Kossi has worked on dozens of Finnish films and has also enjoyed international success. Heikki Kossi performs foley sounds live in concert. There is a strong visual element as he brings along a huge kiosk full of stuff to produce the sounds. The piece also features dancer Emmi Pennanen.

Finnish baroque orchestra combines past and present

The distance between the past and the present is short – sometimes a hair’s breadth. A more familiar version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons will be an ear-opener for baroque lovers as the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) concludes the concert with Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposed, premiered in 2012. It models the Four Seasons concertos as minimalist remixes. Sometimes Vivaldi and Richter walk in lockstep, sometimes Richter jerks the music into an insightful angle or stretches it through repetition into cosmic baroque landscapes. The result of recolored harmonic bases and surfaces reminiscent of electronic sound mats is deafening and intelligently executed ambient Vivaldi. Antti Tikkanen and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra’s interpretation of the work will take FiBO to Central Europe next year, corona conditions permitting.

The concert is part of the AUF collaboration between the Avanti! chamber orchestra, the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra since autumn 2017.

 

Programme:

 

UMO Helsinki Duo: Kasperi Sarikoski & Seppo Kantonen

Bob Telson: Calling You (1987)

Duke Ellington & James “Bubber” Miley: Black Tan Fantasy (1927)

 

Chamber Orchestra Avanti!

Tomas Djupsjöbacka, conductor

Heikki Kossi, foley artist

Emmi Pennanen, dance

Sami Klemola: Jack and the Specifics (2017)

The Forest

Man in the Cabin

The Crash

Intermezzo

Friction

Underwater

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Tom, Jack and bipolar Jerry

Machina

Cadenza

Exit

Still life

 

Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO)

Antti Tikkanen, violin

Max Richter: Four Seasons Recomposed (2012)

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter