Category: News

Ultracromatics – Avanti! At the Knight’s Hall today 6.11.2017 at 18:00

Avanti! has been a pioneer of new trends in Finnish music for more than three decades. In their PianoEspoo concert, the orchestra will premiere Sampo Haapamäki’s new concerto for quarter piano and Jukka Tiensuu’s recorder concerto. The soloists will be Eero Saunamäki, a keyboardist, and Elisa Järvi, a pianist who has been working with Haapamäki for years to develop the fourth string piano to provide a way for the composer’s increasingly varied chordal visions on keyboard.

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! has tuned up its instruments for the autumn performances. The season kicks off with a free Arts Night concert on 24 August, featuring alternative baroque music. Read more

At the turn of September and October, in cooperation with Oopperaseurue taite ry, we will bring two of Väinö Raition’s operatic gems from the 1930s to the Alminsali stage. Read more

In early November, we will be taking part in the PianoEspoo festival. There will be two premiere performances, with Sampo Hapamäki’s concerto for piano four string and Jukka Tiensuu’s recorder concerto. Read more

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On Sunday, the 32. The summer concert attracted over 3000 people to fourteen concerts in Porvoo and Pernaja. The festival met its artistic and visitor targets.
The 33rd edition of the festival was held in Pernonia, with a total of 4,500 people attending. The Avant Garda Summer Festival will take place next summer from 27 June to 1 July 2018. This time the programme will be designed by Avanti! The programme for this year’s event will be organised by Avanti Avanti itself. Timo Ahtinen (double bass), Hanna Juutilainen (flutist) and Jukka Rautasalo (cellist) will take the lead.

Avant’s 32nd in a row. The summer concert starts on Wednesday 28 June and runs for five days until Sunday 2 July. The festival will feature a total of 14 concerts, most of which will take place at the Porvoo Art Factory. This year, the festival can also be followed live online and on the radio. The festival programme has been designed by composer Lotta Wennäkoski.

Watch the summer concert from the comfort of your own home via internet and radio

This year, the concert experience will be available online and on the radio, as well as live. One of the main concerts of the Suvisoito, the concert on Friday 30 June at 19:00, will be streamed and can be followed live on Avant’s website. The streaming is the first of its kind in Suvisoito’s history and has been made possible thanks to the cooperation with Aktiasäätiö Porvoo. It will be quite a visual experience, as the two-hour concert will feature juggling as well as the world premiere of a piece composed for foley artist and chamber orchestra.

Yle radio also broadcast Suvisoito concerts. The opening concert on Thursday 29 June at 19:00 will be broadcast live on Yle Radio 1. The closing concert on Sunday 2 July will be rebroadcast on the same channel on Wednesday 5 July at 19:03.

World’s first foley concert, premieres and Finnish premieres

The world premiere of Sami Klemola’ s composition Jack and the Specifics for foley artist and chamber orchestra will take place at Suvisoito. This is reportedly the first time that the solo parts of the concerto have been written for a foley artist, in this case Heikki Koss, 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. He created soundscapes for animated films such as Little Prince (2015) and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled (2017), which recently won the Cannes Film Festival.

– Collaboration with Sami Klemola and Avant is tantalising. The moments we’ve shared so far have been confusing and have given rise to a huge sense of inspiration. I feel that I have never done anything like Klemola’s work before,” Kossi says.
– Kossi makes foley sounds live in a concert situation. There is a strong visual element, as he brings a huge kiosk full of stuff with him to produce the sounds, Klemola told Rondo magazine in an interview earlier this spring.

Suvifanfaari, the festival opener, will also be premiered. Lotta Wennäkoski , who compiled this year’s programme, says she composed the fanfare with the medieval castle courtyard in mind.

The week will feature a wealth of Finnish premieres, including works by Agata Zubel, André Tchaikovsky, Salvatore Sciarrino, Gloria Coates, Rozalie Hirsi, Tristan Murai and Minna Leinonen.

Young composers forge new music in the Summer Music Week Composition Workshop, and the results will be heard at a free concert in the Grand House of Culture on Friday 30 June.

The diverse programme was designed by composer Lotta Wennäkoski

This year, the festival’s programme is very varied. This means not only a variety of styles, but also diversity: in addition to the more “conventional” instrumentalists, juggler Sakari Männistö and the aforementioned foley artist Heikki Kossi will also perform as soloists. There will be distinguished foreign guests, including Polish soprano composer Agata Zubel and German flutist Kersten McCall of the prestigious Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Another interesting concert will be Emma Salokoski ‘s interpretation of Eva Dahlgren’s songs from the album Jag vill se min älskade komma från det vilda . The concert will also include new Finnish orchestral arrangements of Salokoski’s own songs, including Under the Water and Omani Dream.

The full programme is available at www.avantimusic.fi/suvisoiton-ohjelma/

Lotta Wennäkoski, this year’s artistic director of the Summer Festival, is a busy woman at the moment. She can easily be called one of the hottest Finnish composers. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has commissioned Wennäkoski to write an orchestral work for the BBC Proms, the world’s largest classical music festival. Wennäkoski is also working on commissioned compositions for the 90th anniversary of the Radio Symphony Orchestra for Independence Day and for the Helsinki City Orchestra.
– Putting together the summer festival has been an extraordinary pleasure, not least because I have been following Avant as a listener since the 1980s. Later, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know this unique group of musicians through my own music, and now I have a festival designed for them,” says Wennäkoski.

Free concerts and free entry for those born in 1986

The free city concerts launched last year, which have been very popular, will continue in the centre of Porvoo. The concerts are small-scale and accessible events, a taste of the full festival programme – and, of course, guaranteed Avanti! quality. The aim is to bring Suvisoitto to all Porvoo residents and tourists alike.

Founded in 1986, Suvisoitto invites all its contemporaries born in 1986 to join the summer festival by giving a free ticket to an orchestral concert of their choice.
– We want to offer thirtysomethings in their thirties a break from everyday life. If you were born in 1986, contact our office and get a free ticket to an orchestra concert of your choice,” encourages Maati Rehor, Avant’s Executive Director. For more information click here.

Tickets and festival buses

Tickets are on sale in advance at Lippupiste. They will also be sold at the door of the concert venues before the concerts. Festival buses will run from Helsinki to the Porvoo Art Factory and back on the concert days. More information about tickets and buses.

Avanti! will accompany the Canadian conductor Gabriel Thibaudeau, one of the top conductors in the film world, in the main music performance of the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä (14.-18.6.2017) on Friday 16.6., with his fine music for Rupert Julian’s film The Phantom of the Grand Opera (1925). The thousand-voiced Lon Chaney is a stunner in the most celebrated of film adaptations of the classic melodrama. The soprano solo is sung by Reetta Haavisto.

Buy tickets for €25 via this page.

Read more >

Opera Society Taite ry and Chamber Orchestra Avanti! will bring two operas composed by Väinö Raition to the stage of the National Opera’s Alminsal in September-October. In addition, there are parts of Raition’s Asaria. The music is fantastic and the stage setting is powerful. The performances will take place in the Alminsal of the Finnish National Opera on 29.9., 30.9. and 1.10.2017 and tickets are on sale now. Read more here.

Avanti!’s spring 2017 concerts will feature a diverse selection of new and classical music as well as baroque hits. The concert season culminates with the Spring Enchantment concert, headlined by the dramatic soprano Karita Mattila. The concert will open with the premiere of a new orchestral work by Lauri Kilpiö.

Avanti!’s spring programme includes three concerts: the crowning concert of the Musica nova festival in February in the spirit of György Ligeti, the acclaimed Riitti concert in March at the Tuomiokirko Church in Porvoo, and the Spring Enchantment concert in May at the Music Hall.

SPRING LUMOUS 27.5.2017, Music Hall Concert Hall

On the last Saturday in May, Karita Mattila will be the soloist in the Spring Enchantment concert at Helsinki Music Centre. Mattila shot to international fame after winning the Cardiff Song Contest in 1983, when the chamber orchestra Avanti! was founded. Now the paths of these booming musical phenomena cross again.

The concert, supported by the Pro Musica Foundation, will premiere a new orchestral work by Lauri Kilpiö, one of the most interesting composers of his generation. The work was commissioned by the Pro Musica Foundation.

“The sonic characters in my upcoming orchestral piece are mainly sounds and textures, sometimes built up from non-compositional noise. However, my work is not sound art, but motivic music. I am extremely happy to have been commissioned by the Pro Musica Foundation to carry out a large, demanding and very inspiring compositional project together with the Avanti! orchestra,” says Kilpiö.

The concert will open John Cagen composed by 4’33”, which is considered a classic example of non-music or conceptual music. After the premiere, the concert will continue with songs by the luminous soprano Karita Mattila, who will play the many tones of love: longing, betrayal, romance and happiness. French singer Henri Duparc’s songs are distinguished by a subtle longing and sensuality. Sibelius and Runeberg glorify young love in the song Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte, in which a girl is betrayed. In the Rydberg song På verandan vid havet, the tense silence expresses a yearning for eternity, while in the Runeberg song Våren flyktar hastigt, the mere memory of spring encourages love.

There’s also a touch of romantic bliss in Robert Schumann ‘s “Spring” symphony, in which a newly married composer finds romantic omens in the season.

The concert will be conducted by Olari Elts.

NOTE! Changes and additions have been made to the concert programme. The information has been updated on 23.1. and 12.4.

Spring season starts in the spirit of György Ligeti

MUSICA NOVA: IN THE SPIRIT OF LIGETI 12.2.2017, Paavo Hall, Helsinki Music Centre

The musical legacy of Hungarian-born avant-garde composer György Ligeti will be heard in the opening concert of Avanti!’s spring season, In the spirit of Ligeti, on 12 February. For the general public, Ligeti’s music is best known for Stanley Kubrick’s cult films 2001: A Space Adventure and Eyes Wide Shut. In the closing concert of Musica nova, György Ligeti’s influence can be heard in the compositions of his most important pupils and his son.

Lukas Ligeti’s Curtain brings together the legacy of European modernism and African rhythms. Inspired by the visual arts, the work explores the “painting on” and erasure of material over a melodic and harmonious ground in a manner reminiscent of animation artist William Kentdrige. A string quartet serves as the canvas on which Ligeti paints, creating a tension between the sounds of the quartet and those of the larger ensemble.

The final part of Unsuk Chin’s cosmigimmicks , Thall (mask), is a tribute to György Ligeti. The centrepiece of the piece, which is a musical pantomime, is a guitar playing a pseudo-melody of a few repetitive microtones. “The “melody” transforms itself according to the harmonies of the other instruments, like the expression on the mime’s face.

Ligeti’s other important pupil, Benedict Mason, also bows to his mentor. Hinterstoissener traverse uses only one note, G. The extremely minimalist approach allows a close examination of rhythm and dynamics.

The concert is part of the Musica nova Helsinki festival programme and will be conducted by Clement Power.

Praised Riitti concert to be heard at the Tuomiokirko in Porvoo

RITE 14.3.2017, Porvoo Cathedral

First heard in April 2016 in Helsinki’s Temppeliaukio Church, the concert Riitti will be continued to rave reviews. Avanti! returns to the atmospheric Tuomiokirkko in Porvoo on 14 March with a highly acclaimed programme. Taking advantage of the space and acoustics of the church, the concert will combine new and old music.

Among the well-known composers of the Baroque period will be Henry Purcell’s The Queen’s Funeral Marchand Marin Marais’ Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont de Paris, from the biopic All the Mornings of My Life .

As the name suggests, Avanti!’s Riitti concert will make use of ritual, both in terms of the works and their form. Ranging from the solemnity of the Baroque to the futuristic atmosphere of the 20th century, the concert includes not only Baroque hits but also rarely heard 1950s tape recordings. The concert will culminate in the ‘Story Opera Ballet’, a cello concertocommissioned by soloist Juho Laitinen from Jukka Tiensuu.

“New music is important to me. I don’t just mean recently composed works, but sounds in general that awaken new aesthetic, philosophical and ethical experiences. The commission is not only an act of cultural policy, but also a tool to seek out these awakenings,” says Laitinen.

The concert is part of the Taidetehtaan Classics series and will be conducted by Lauri Ahokas.

The programme for Musica Nova Helsinki 2017 has been published. In the closing concert of the festival, on Sun 12 February 2017, György Ligeti’s influence will be heard in the compositions of his most important pupils and son. Avant will be conducted by British conductor Clement Power.

The full programme for Avant’s spring season will be published soon!