Category: News

Avantin 39. The 2024 Summer Music Festival will take place in Porvoo from 27-30 June 2024, with composer and conductor Ondřej Adámek as artistic director.

Czech composer Adámek (b.1979) is known as a composer especially for his search for new techniques for classical instruments, which allows him to create the tone and form that is so important to his compositions. His strong interest in different musical cultures of the world can be heard in his orchestral, chamber, vocal and electro-acoustic works, which he has composed for several prestigious ensembles, orchestras and contemporary music festivals in Europe. Adámek’s compositions are also accompanied by the creation of new instruments, the most famous example being the Airmachine, a kind of air machine or musical instrument created with Carol Jimenez.

Adámek’s repertoire, designed by Adámek, includes a rich selection of his own works, conducted by the composer himself. The works give a broad overview of his work over the years – and the festival will also screen short films he has made.

The main concert programme for the Summer Music Festival is now published! The concert will again take place in Porvoo Art Factory’s Avanti Hall and Tehdassali, as well as in Porvoo Cathedral. The opening fanfare of Suvisoito will take place as usual at the Town Hall Square, kicking off the festival on Thursday 27 June at 12 noon.

The orchestra of the summer concert is the Chamber Orchestra Avanti! with Tami Pohjola, among others, as soloist. One of the most promising violinists of his generation, Tami Pohjola’s humble approach to music has delighted classical music audiences, and he has performed as a soloist with numerous Finnish orchestras. In the closing concert of the Summer Concert on 30 June at 18:00, he will be heard as soloist in Ondřej Adámek’s orchestral work Follow me. Adámek himself will conduct the concert. The concert will also feature a commissioned work by Avant from composer Pilar Miralles and will culminate in Antonin Dvořák’s Czech suite.

In January 2024, the stage of the Svenska Teatern was filled with the hot atmosphere of Argentine tango when the Avant and Svenska Teatern’s traditional Loppiaiskonzert took the stage with the Avant String Orchestra together with Maria Ylipää, Marzi Nyman, Niko Kumpuvaara and Ville Herrala. Ylipää & friends feat. Avanti!: Piazzolla wowed the audience and the applause was never-ending, and now this highly popular concert will be repeated on the Saturday evening of 29 June at 18:00 in the Avanti Hall of the Art Factory. The concert will feature Piazzolla’ s most beloved classics with arrangements for Avant.

The Avanti! quartet is one of Avant’s core ensembles. The quartet’s repertoire includes both quartet classics and rarities from the twilight of history, as well as exciting new contemporary works. The Avanti! quartet is known for its bold and open-minded approach to music and its captivating performance style. The Avanti! quartet’s concert at Porvoo Cathedral on Friday 28 June at 18:00 will include a commissioned piece by Avant from composer Tara Valkonen.

The opening concert of the Summer Music Festival on Thursday 27 June at 18:00 at the Porvoo Art Factory will feature a wide range of music by Ondřej Adámek. The concert will include Let Me Tell You a Story for soprano and orchestra, Whence Comes the Voice? for two singers and the playful Karakuri. Adámek himself will conduct the concert.

In the traditional Avanti! club, short films meet music. The audience will be able to discover the instruments created by Adámek in the form of short films and enjoy music performed by Avantti’s musicians. The Avanti! club will transform the Factory Hall of the Art Factory into an atmospheric club on Friday 28 June at 20.30.

An international masterclass for composers will again be held in conjunction with the Summer Music Festival. The final concert on Sunday 30 June at 13:00 will feature new works for Avant’s wind and string quintets by the composers who took part in the masterclass. The course will be taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen.

The full programme of the Summer Concert is available at www.avantimusic.fi.

Tickets for the Summer Concert are now on sale! Tickets are sold by lippu.fi.

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! has made an album after a break of more than ten years! The selected works by Lotta Wennäkoski on the Zeng album were performed in February 2020 at a concert celebrating the composer’s 50th birthday, organised by Avantti. In addition to the works I stället för vingar (2014-16), Hele (2018), Kuule II (2007) and Zeng (2018-19), the piano trio Päärme (2014-15) was recorded for the album. The collection provides a rich overview of Lotta Wennäkoski’s chamber music output – the Hungarian pediments of Zeng meet the emotional organ scores of Kuule II.

The soloist line-up on the album is impressive. Zeng features Lucie Horsch on lead guitar and Ville Syrjäläinen on percussion. Heikki Nikula plays the bass clarinet part II and the clarinet parts I stället för vingar. Virpi Räisänen performs the vocal part of I stället för vingar, Antti Ohjenoja on percussion and Timo Ahtis on double bass. Pianist Emil Holmström, violinist Eriikka Maalismaa and cellist Mikko Ivars make up the piano trio. The chamber orchestra works have been recorded under the baton of conductor József Hárs. The album features musicians who have played in Avant for decades as well as first-time professional musicians.

The album was produced by Laura Heikinheimo. She has worked as a recording producer for the Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2009 and her recordings have won awards from Grammys to Gramophones. The album was recorded by Enno Mäemets, an expert in the field, at Järvenpää-Talo and released by Alba Records.

The Zeng album will be released on Saturday 2.12. in connection with the Avanti! quartet concert at Suvilahti Tiivistämö. Four works composed for string quartet will be performed in this upbeat and atmospheric evening: the Finnish premiere of Pige by Lotta Wennäkoski and Flickereth, premiered in July, John Zorn’s Cat O´nine Tails and Michael Daugherty’s Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover for quartet and tape. The evening will start at 18:00 with a discussion with composer Lotta Wennäkoski and writer Riina Katajavuori. The discussion on intertextuality and musicality is available for the price of a concert ticket. The concert itself starts at 19:00.

There is power in cooperation and Avanti! wants to show this autumn. We will kick off the autumn with a wide range of co-productions with a variety of cultural actors. The versatility of Avanti’s musicians will allow us to participate in opera and theatre productions as well as concerts combining jazz, rap and gospel music.

AUF: Bach as jazz – variations on Uri Caine’s Golberg

Avanti, UMO and FiBO, or AUF, will boldly take on Uri Caine’s Bach-Goldberg variations in their traditional joint concert in September. Paleface and the gospel choir Sounds of Mercy, conducted by Jepa Lambert, will perform as soloists. The concert will feature selected gems from the 70-part variations, rearranged for this unique ensemble. Wild, free and demanding interpretations tastefully collide baroque, arias, classical, jazz, disco and hip-hop. It’s an exhilarating and surprising genre pop!

AUF: Bach as jazz – Uri Caine Goldberg Variations
Tuesday 12.9.2023 at 19:00
Music House

In transit

As part of the Helsinki Opera Festival, we are involved in Opera Box’s production In transit. The opera is about people on the move. It’s about what it’s like to always be a stranger, what it’s like to feel like you belong everywhere. Above all, it is a story about desire, and the courage to surrender to desire. The opera is composed by Stefan Lindgren and based on the novel by Hannele Mikaela Taivassalon.The language of performance is Swedish, with subtitles in Finnish. Avant will be conducted for the first time by conductor Jonas Rannila.

In transit
31.8. at 19, 2.9. at 14 & 3.9. at 16
Alexander Theatre

the proximity of four days

We are collaborating with the WAUHAUS collective and Espoo City Theatre on Pipsa Longa’s play Four Days of Intimacy. The play explores the coexistence of humans and seagulls on a southern sunny beach over four days. The end result is a strangely comic, audiovisual performance about mortality, based on the coexistence of seagulls and humans on a beach resort.

The stage does not see a human being in the leading role, but brings the reality of seagulls alongside the human experience. A central theme of the performance is also the mortality we share with other species. As part of the performance, Avant will perform a composition by Kaija Saariaho, Cloud Trio.

Performances in the Revontulihall of Espoo City Theatre 12.9.-10.10.2023.
The language of the performance is Finnish, subtitles in Finnish and English with a mobile app.

four-day proximity
12.9.-10.10.2023
Revontulihalli, Espoo City Theatre

The meaning of zero

The premiere of The Meaning of Zero, a work for five dancers and two musicians, will take place in the Pannuhall of the House of Dance on 27 October. The work is a frenetic scientific and artistic exploration into the essence of zero. The concept of zero is of fundamental importance to human development, on which all modern technology rests. The performance connects mathematical thinking to the sprawling and surging energy of motion.

The work is the first collaboration between choreographer Petri Kekon and composer Ville Aslak Raasakka. The music is performed in collaboration with Avant. In addition to the choreographic content, we also search for the meaning of zero sonically and think of the whole as a synthesis of music and movement.

The meaning of zero
27.10. at 19, 28.10. at 19 & 31.10. at 19
Pannuhalli, Dance House

For more details and ticketing locations, see the Concerts tab.

Chamber Orchestra Avanti! has invited the composer and conductor Ondřej Adámek as the artistic designer of the 2024 Summer Music Festival in Avant.

TšAdámek (b.1979) is a composer from Estonia, known in particular for his search for new techniques for classical instruments, which gives his compositions an important timbre and form. His strong interest in different musical cultures of the world can be heard in his orchestral, chamber, vocal and electro-acoustic works, which he has composed for for many prestigious ensembles, orchestras and contemporary music festivals in Europe.

Adámek’s compositions are also accompanied by new instruments, the most famous example of which is The Airmachine, a kind of air machine or instrument created with Carol Jimenez, which will also be shown at the 2024 festival in the form of short films.

The 2023 Summer Festival opened at Porvoo’s Town Hall Square with a composition by Adámek Coups d’ailes, and the 2024 Summer Music Festival will feature a large number of his works. Adámek will also conduct some of the concerts and bring to Porvoo some interesting soloists with whom he has already worked extensively in the past.

The Summer Play features the music of fearless artists

The concerts of Avant’s spring season have now been played and we thank our audience for the past season!

Summery Porvoo and Avant’s artists and staff are currently preparing for the upcoming Suvisoitto festival, which will take place in Porvoo and the surrounding area immediately after Midsummer for five days from 28 June to 2 July 2023. Dreamlands and Dystopias, showcases the diversity of music of our time. The programme features fresh music from emerging composers as well as more established contemporary composers. It will be an exciting and complex week of concerts.

There will be a particularly large number of Finnish premieres and they will be heard at each of the main Suvisoito concerts. There will be 20 Finnish premieres and two world premieres. The first world premiere will take place on Wednesday 28.6. Wolfgang von Schweinitzwill be played at our concert tonight. Friday 2.7. at the Art Factory Strange Rituals the concert will feature Antti Auvinen the world premiere of his highly anticipated new flute concerto, featuring the versatile Norwegian flutist, composer and sound artist Bjørnar Habbestad.

Other guest soloists this summer include sopranos who have previously worked with Avant. Faustine de Monés and Tuuli Lindeberg. Avant-garde for the public de Monés is familiar a staged ensemble version of Kaija Saariaho’s La Passion de Simone, performed last winter. She will perform in the opening concert of the Summer Opera on 29 June at the Kunsthalle, performing Claude Vivier’s already classic Lonely Child for soprano and ensemble. uuli Lindeberg will sing at the closing concert on 2.7. Vito Žuraj’s Ubuquity – a theatrical work for soprano and ensemble. Malaysian pianist Mei Yi Foo will perform as Avant’s soloist for the first time in two concerts: on Friday 30 June, performing a work by Hans Abrahamsen for solo piano and ensemble, and on Saturday 1 July, playing a collection of small works by various composers for solo piano in a concert. Musical Toys.

This year’s guest conductors for the Summer Music Festival are a young Finn enjoying the upswing of an international career Emilia Hoving and from the Netherlands, the energetic Bas Wiegers.

Avanti Club (K18) Sat 1.7. bears this year the name Dark Mirror. The club will enjoy Philippe Grammaticopoulos’ sharp and exciting short films about a possible world of the near future and music from John Zorn and Michael Daugherty.

Sat 1.7. and Sun 2.7. for families with children Red Nose CompanyThe Emperor’s New Clothes show takes on a new dimension in summer 2023 Marzi Nymanaccompanied by music composed and arranged by. The acting duo Timo Ruuskanen and Tuukka Vasamathe stage will also feature the luminous duo of Avant. The performance continues the inspiring collaboration weaved around the work of Aleksis Kivi.

The artistic design team for the 2023 Summerfest Unsuk Chin and Maris Gothóni warmly welcome the audience to the Summerfest and summarise the programme of their curated programme: “We argue that the ensemble reflects the visionary potential of music in uncertain times, incorporating dream worlds as much as dystopian fears.”

A warm welcome to Suvisoitto!

Avant’s Summer Play 28.6.-2.7.2023

Tickets for the Summer Concert are sold by Lippu.fi.

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

The programme for the closing concert of Musica nova Helsinki is now published.

You can read the programme in Finnish, Swedish and English here.

Buy tickets here.

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

The programme for Avant’s Idyllistä Katastrofiin climate concert has now been published.

You can read the programme in Finnish, Swedish and English here: https://avantimusic.fi/ohjelma/

Buy your tickets here.