Avant’s autumn season includes three completely different packages. There will be a themed orchestra concert at the Cable Factory, an early music club concert, and a new music concert Klang at the Music Hall.
See all concerts and ticket information here.
Avanti! continues his series of political concerts, and in September he will perform for the first time in a long time at his home in the Cable Factory. The theme of the concert takes a humorous but serious look at the relationship between the welfare society and art. “Welfare Art-Poor Welfare Art” plays at the Merikaapel Hall on Tuesday 20 September at 19:00.
Conducted by conductor Jaakko Kuusisto , Avant’s soloists include singers Johanna Rusanen, Petri Bäckström and Jaakko Kortekangas.
The concert asks whether art can help when the welfare state is in a bad way. Culture is being cut, but the art of care is being invested in. Can welfare music be played in a minor key, should it be harmless and simple? Or is it independent and free art that is welfare?
See more information about the concert here.
Tickets 27,50/17,50€ www.lippu.fi
Composer Lotta Wennäkoski is planning the XXXII Avanti! Summer Concert. The 2016 Summer Play attracted around 3000 people to a total of fourteen concerts or events in Porvoo and Pernaja.
Lotta Wennäkoski was the artistic designer of the Tampere Biennale in 2008-2010 and the seasonal composer of the Tapiola Sinfonietta in 2010-2011. Her compositions have been widely performed in Finnish and international concert halls and festivals, including Helsinki Festival, Musica Nova, Märzmusik Berlin, Warsaw Syksy, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Other Minds. Wennäkoski has also composed commissioned works for the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.“The invitation to be the artistic designer of Suvisoito came as a flattering surprise. It is a great opportunity for me to design a festival that will feature chamber, orchestral, contemporary and classical music. What a lot you can invent!” says Wennäkoski.
The Suvisoito, which ended on Sunday 3 July, was designed by Dima Slobodeniouk, a Finnish conductor born in Moscow. Over the five days, a total of 14 concerts or events were organised in Porvoo and Pernaja, including six free events around Porvoo. In total, the festival attracted around 3000 people. The festival buses again transported the audience from Helsinki to Taidetehta and back.
The main sponsors of the festival were the City of Porvoo, Aktiasäätiö Porvoo, Neste, Porvoo Art Factory and Svenska kulturfonden.
Avanti! thanks its audience and supporters, and wishes a happy summer to all its friends!
Avanti! XXXI Suvisoitto – Just be / Wed-Sun 29.6.-3.7.2016, Porvoo and Loviisa
This year, the artistic design of Avant’s Suvisoito is the responsibility of Suvisoito concertmaster and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk. The five-day music event features 14 concerts and events that invite you to relax and be surprised in summer in Porvoo. New free city concerts will bring Suvisoito right to the heart of Porvoo.
Moscow-born Finnish conductor Dima Slobodeniouk is a very familiar partner for Avant and this is his eighth Summer Overture. For this year’s Suvisoitto, Slobodeniouk has chosen to bring music that acts as a counterbalance to the constant hustle and bustle.
“Nowadays we are in a hurry and things have to happen immediately. Fortunately, art and creativity do not fit this mould (fashion), and that is why art is necessary. We all need space to think, feel, act and just be. This year’s Summerfest programme is a kind of unspoken message: an invitation to come and be present and enjoy the space and the moment in music,” Slobodeniouk says, describing the Just be programme.
Dima Slobodeniouk is currently Artistic Director of the Galician Symphony Orchestra and in autumn 2016 he will also become Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Lahti International Sibelius Festival.
Free concerts lower the threshold to participate in Suvisoitto
The opening concert on 30 June will feature the German Jörg Widmann as both clarinet soloist and composer.
“Jörg Widmann is a phenomenal clarinettist and a brilliant composer whose works are commissioned and premiered by almost all the top orchestras and soloists in Europe and beyond. We are delighted to have him as clarinettist and composer for the opening,” said Slobodeniouk. Widmann’s music will also be heard at the closing concert of the Summer Festival on 3 July. The opening concert will also feature the glass harmonica, popular in the 17th century, which is making a comeback, and its contemporary verrophone.
Chloë Hanslip, the young violinist who delighted the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk in March, will play the European premiere of Michael Hersch’s Violin Concerto on Saturday 2 July and the closing concert on 3 July, as soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Other soloists include Christa Schönfeldinger, glass harmonica, and Gerald Schönfeldinger, verrophone, of the Vienna Glass Armonica Duo, Avanti! Päivi Severeide, harp, and Mika Väyrynen, accordion, and Ismo Eskelinen, who will be the soloist in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Transit Guitar Concerto, premiered earlier on Friday 1 July. The Madrid-based flamenco group Camerata Flamenco Project will also perform at the same concert. In addition to Dima Slobodeniouk, the conductors of the Suvisoito will be Olari Elts and Andres Kaljuste.
Martti Suosalo, Seela Sella and Vuokko Hovatta, among others, will take to the stage of the Culture House Grand when the characters of the popular play The Nightingales perform Anna-Mari Kähärä’s hilarious compositions in a children’s concert on Saturday 2 July. The Grand will also once again host a composition workshop for young composers. The club concert on Saturday evening 2 July at the Zum Beispiel restaurant will bring together Camerata Flamenco Project and Anette Åkerlund, a singer representing the Finnish Roma singing tradition.
Suvisoitto is expanding further into the heart of Porvoo with a new four-concert series. “We want to bring Suvisoito to all Porvoo residents. The city concerts are small-scale and accessible events, but with guaranteed Avanti! quality musical content. The festival is being developed under the theme” Porvoo’s own orchestra “, and the low-threshold day concerts will provide an opportunity to deepen the relationship with the audience while respecting the concert tradition,” says Maati Rehor, Avant’s Executive Director, who is preparing her first Suvisoitto. Admission is free to the city concerts and to the Friday night Night Play at the Arts Centre on 1 July.
The festival buses will take concert-goers from Helsinki to the concerts in Taidetehta and back.
See the full programme: https://avantimusic.fi/suvisoiton-ohjelma/
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!
Chamber Orchestra Avanti! was founded in 1983 by conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, flutist Olli Pohjola and conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The orchestra’s aim is to provide the highest quality of music-making between enthusiastic and skilled musicians. Avant’s open-minded and flexible composition has made it possible to hear repertoire in Finland that would otherwise go unheard. The orchestra’s artistic director is clarinetist Kari Kriikku.
Avanti! offers music for the open-minded and takes its listeners on bold choices: the familiar seems fresh and new, the new soon familiar. Avanti! moves freely through different eras and genres, with a variety of line-ups and an uncompromising commitment to quality.
Avanti! Summer music
The annual summer festival Avanti! Summer Play was founded in 1986. The Summer Play is a cross-section of Avanti’s activities: new music of the Avanti! generation is in some ways the main focus, but the musical timeline ranges from baroque to premieres. The city of Porvoo has also long associated the arrival of musicians with its cultural heritage. Artistic directors of the Summer Festival have included violinist Pekka Kuusisto, conductor Hannu Lintu and composer Kaija Saariaho.
The main sponsors of the festival are the City of Porvoo, Neste and Aktiasäätiö Porvoo.
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EVENT INFORMATION
Avanti! XXXI Summer Play
Wed-Sun 29.6.-3.7.2016, Porvoo
The venues are Pernaja Church, Porvoo Art Factory, Culture House Grand (Porvoo), Restaurant Zum Beispiel (Porvoo) and Porvoo Gymnasium. Updated information at www.avantimusic.fi.
TICKETS ON SALE FROM 31.3.2016
– Tickets for concerts €10-35 (including service charge). Reduced prices for children (0-16 years), students, pensioners, conscripts, conscripts and unemployed persons.
– Festival Pass 160/125 € (incl. service fee) includes tickets to all paid concerts.
– More information on tickets: https://avantimusic.fi/liput/
– Tickets in advance at Lippupiste, www.lippu.fi or call 0600 900 900 (€1.98/min + pvm, open daily 7-22). 2.7. tickets for the club concert can be bought in advance at the restaurant Zum Beispiel.
FESTIVAL BUSES
– Festival buses run from Helsinki to Taidetehta and back.
– For more information and timetables: https://avantimusic.fi/festaribussi/
Choreographer Petri Kekon’s latest work “Stop – the dark substance of art” sheds light on the hidden dark side of artistry with five dancers and five musicians. This powerful union of music and movement will premiere at the Lumee Media Centre on 13 May 2016. The work will also premiere a composition by Jovanka Trbojevic, interpreted by Avant’s Wind Quintet.
Studio Stage, Media Centre Lume, Helsinki, Finland
Fri 13.5.2016 at 19
Sat 14.5.2016 at 19
Tue 17.5.2016 at 19
Thu 19.5.2016 at 19
Fri 20.5.2016 at 19
Sat 21.5.2016 at 19
Petri Kekoni Company
Avanti!
Petri Kekoni, choreography, concept and production
Jovanka Trbojevic, composition
Dancers:
Meeri Altmets, Tanja Illukka, Pekka Louhio, Saku Koistinen and Eero Vesterinen
Musicians:
Helmi Malmgren (cl), Angel Molinos (bcl), Harri Joy (bsn), Erkki Suomalainen (cbsn), Alexis Routley (horn)
Understanding requires a pause. Rhythm requires a break. Often it is the pause that makes the movement visible and allows us to gather the information we have previously seen in our minds. Few, however, are able to give the pause the value it deserves.
“What happens when nothing moves, no ideas are born, the artist has stopped? You can’t show this state to the outside world – the artist must always be an energetic, creative and inspiring person. Yet art requires pauses in order to evolve, just as dynamic movement requires pauses in order to create continuity. When does a movement end and when does the next one begin? The space between these events – the waiting space – is what we hunt for. The pause seeks to turn the pause, this ‘dark matter’ of art, into light.”
“When does the movement end and the next one begin? It is the space between these events – the waiting space – that we are hunting for. It is claimed that space is held together by a so-called dark matter, the composition of which we do not know. Could the various degrees of physical and mental stasis be the force that holds art together – its ‘dark matter’” – choreographer Petri Kekoni
Tickets 25/15€ – buy tickets here!
“Through rites of passage, a group of people repeatedly renews their sense of self and of belonging, while reinforcing the social nature of individuals,” said the anthropologist Émile Durkheim. The same can be said of Avant’s Riitti concert, which reaches from the solemnity of the Baroque to the futuristic celebrations of the 20th century. They prepare the listener for the birth of Jukka Tiensuu’s new electric cello concerto.
Mon 18.4.2016 at 19
Temppeliaukio Church
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!
Juho Laitinen, cello
Tomas Djupsjöbacka, conductor
Giacinto Scelsi: Quattro pezzi per tromba sola I
Henry Purcell: The Queen’s Funeral March
Pierre Henry: Variations pour une porte et un soupir: 4. Eveil
Jukka Tiensuu: Kalasi
Pierre Henry: Variations pour une porte et un soupir: 8. Comptine
Henry Purcell: Pavane & Chacony
Otto Luening: Low Speed
Giacinto Scelsi: Quattro pezzi per tromba sola II
Marin Marais: Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont de Paris
Jukka Tiensuu: Story Opera Ballet: Concerto for Electric Cello and Ensemble n.d.
In the embrace of music, everything a person needs. From nursery rhyme to funeral and resurrection. Excitement, calm, celebration and abandonment. The electricity of the cello. The brilliance of trumpets. The dance, the sighs and the bells. A sweet symbiosis of the old and the new. (Jukka Tiensuu)
Tickets from Lippupiste 27,50€/17,50€
Click here to go to the ticket office!
Avanti! will visit Ismo Eskelinen’s “Guitar World – Global Guitar” concert series at Verkatehta on 19 March 2016.
In Guitar World, the harmonic and precise polyphony of Western music meets the improvisational virtuosity of classical Asian music. In this second concert, the journey takes us far to the East. The concert, based around India and China, features Ghatam Karthick and the chamber orchestra Avanti! Eero Hämeenniemi’s work for guitar and ghatam will be premiered, along with the Finnish premiere of Tan Dun’s Concerto for Six.
For more information and tickets: http://www.verkatehdas.fi/tapahtumat/324
Guitar World – Global Guitar Ismo Eskelinen: India and China
Eero Hämeenniemi (1951 – ): Wood and Clay, work for guitar and ghatam, premiere
Tan Dun (1957 – ): Concerto for Six, Finnish premiere
Ghatam Karthick, ghatam
Ismo Eskelinen, guitar
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!
Chamber Orchestra Avanti! begins its spring season with two European performances. HumppAvanti! performed in Germany as a guest of the renowned Kölner Philharmonie (Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra) on 16.1. with bass Matti Salminen and M.A. Numminen as soloists. will perform in Denmark as orchestral guest of the new NJORD Biennale. The programme includes the premiere of a new chamber arrangement of Kaija Saariaho’s “La Passion de Simone” oratorio.
The concert in Cologne was a true HumppAvant, which M.A. Numminen’s storyline made understandable to the German audience. Cologne is also Matti Salminen’s former hometown, and during the exhilarating evening, the audience was able to hear compositions by M.A. Numminen and Unto Mononen as well as Schubert and Wagner in the style of HumppAvant. Numminen and Salminen duetted “Satumaa”, for example.
The NJORD Festival, taking place for the first time in Copenhagen from 28 January to 1 February 2016, is a new biennial focusing on Nordic contemporary art. Kaija Saariaho will be the guest composer for the event and her works will be performed by Avanti! on two evenings. Avanti! will perform for the first time in Denmark.
At the opening concert on Thursday 28.1. Avanti! and the French group La Chambre aux échos will perform a new chamber version of Saariaho’s “La Passion de Simone” oratorio, directed by Aleksi Barrière. The conductor is Clément Mao-Tacacs, who will also conduct the concert on 29 January. In addition to Saariaho’s “Lichtbogen” (1986) and “Notes on Light” (2006), the concert will feature Niilo Tarnanen’s “Schwebe” (2013) and the premiere of “Stringed Spaces II” by the Danish composer Hans Peter Stubbe Teglbjaerg. Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg will be the soloist in the concert. The concert will be broadcast by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
Chamber Orchestra Avanti! will perform in Hämeenlinna in Finland on 19 March, in Helsinki in Temppeliaukio Church on 18 April and in Arabia’s Lume Theatre in Petri Kokoni Company’s new dance production on 13-21 May.The spring concerts will be updated on our website soon.
The programme for the 31st edition of the Suvisoitto Festival, which will be held in Porvoo from 29 June to 3 July, will be published in March. Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk is in charge of the festival’s programming.
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.
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.