Avant’s Summer Music Festival comes to Porvoo on 26-30 June 2019, with Swiss conductor Baldur Brönnimann as the artistic director. The theme for 2019 is City of Music, bringing music to the streets and cafés of Porvoo. The music will paint different moods and imaginary musical inscriptions on the streets and walls of houses in Porvoo.
The Finnish premiere of Jukka Tiensuu’s work Teoton, composed for its performer, sheng virtuoso Wu Wei, will take place in the Avanti Hall of the Art Factory. The sheng, or mouth organ, is a thousand-year-old wind instrument, especially in China and Korea, whose sound production is related to the Western accordion and harmonica.
New to the summer festival are open lounge clubs, where international stars Wu Wei and violinist Jennifer Koh will join festival-goers in the warmth of the Avanti Hall as the evening draws to a close. The music will descend from the stage to the people and the audience will be able to enjoy high quality improvisation by international artists. American violinist Jennifer Koh will also perform in Porvoo’s cafés on Saturday, playing works for solo violin. Koh will also be the soloist in György Ligeti’s fantastic violin concerto on Friday evening.
Legends of their species Matti Salminen and M.A. Numminen meet again when Humppavanti! returns to the Suvisoito repertoire. During the evening, M.A. Numminen and Unto Mononen as well as compositions by Schubert and Wagner will be heard in Avanti Hall in slightly more unusual guises. In the closing concert, the festival’s folk theme will culminate in György Ligeti’s Concert Românesc. Beethoven’s third symphony “Eroica” will close the festival.
The programme includes compositions by the Avant gambay ensemble and King Henry VIII, as well as Finnish folk music and compositions from the time of the late Porfolk expressionist Valle Rosenberg (1891-1919). As usual, the programme also includes a composition workshop concert with works related to avant-garde lyric films, and a children’s concert where music can be touched.
Avantin 34. Suvisoitto is supported by the City of Porvoo, the Arts Promotion Centre, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden and the Porvoo Aktiasäätiö.
Tickets are now on sale at Lippupiste outlets and at www.lippu.fi/avanti.
The programme and information about the upcoming festival can be found here.
Festival pass enquiries directly from the Avant office (contact details below).
For more information:
Avant Office, [email protected], tel. 050 581 0409
Information updated on 24 May: changed the name and number of the Beethoven symphony for the closing concert.
