Chamber Orchestra Avanti! is seeking a producer for an open-ended contract

Founded in 1983, the Avanti!chamber orchestra is a renowned and respected ensemble made up of some of the country’s leading musicians, known for its open-minded repertoire. In addition to our winter concert series, commissioned concerts and concerts abroad, we produce the annual Suvisoitto festival in Porvoo. Avant’s artistic director is clarinetist Kari Kriikku.

Avanti! is looking for a skilled and experienced person for an indefinite employment contract.

A PRODUCER who

is responsible for the practical concert production of Avant concerts and the Suvisoitto Festival, for the score and music acquisition for productions, as well as for the scheduling, organisation and development of the rehearsal space. The Producer will contribute to the development of the orchestra’s activities, working alongside the Executive Director.

To perform your duties successfully, you must

  • initiative and strong organisational skills
  • good oral and written Finnish and English language skills, other language skills would be an advantage
  • good digital skills
  • previous experience in similar tasks
  • a good knowledge of music, music life and music organisations
  • the ability to learn and a “can do” attitude
  • the fearlessness to take on practical tasks
  • good interpersonal and communication skills
  • the ability to cope with pressure and a sense of humour, working irregular hours on a regular basis

In-depth knowledge of classical music, financial and marketing communication skills and/or an appropriate university degree would be an advantage.

The job will start in August or September 2019, on a part-time contract (60%) and is valid until further notice. Exceptionally, for the period 1.10.2019 – 30.9.2020, the working hours will be 80-100% by contract and this will be recorded in the employment contract. If funding permits, the 80% working time may also be extended from 1.10.2020 by mutual agreement. The employment contract will include a probationary period of 6 months. Salary will be negotiated according to experience and education, we follow the collective agreement of the Taku Association.

Free application by 24:00 on Saturday 29 June 2019 to [email protected].

Inquiries Thu 20.6. at 10.30-12, Tue 25.6. at 14.30-16 and Wed 26.6. at 10.30-12 Executive Director Annika Mustonen, tel. 050 5810409.

Interviews will be held on 3-4 July 2019. Even if the interview date is not convenient, please apply anyway and indicate the scheduling obstacle in your application.

14.9.2019 Music of All Ages – three orchestras together at the Helsinki Music Centre

Helena Juntunen
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) and soprano Helena Juntunen perform Vivaldi, Ellington and John Adams on 14 September 2019 at the Helsinki Music Centre.
Three top orchestras – Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) – join forces in a unique joint concert with soprano Helena Juntunen. The concert will feature a delicious selection of the best of each orchestra, and the evening will culminate in a joint performance by the versatile musicians of John Adams and a Buster Keaton video installation. You’ve never experienced anything like this before! The concert is part of the AUF collaboration between Avanti!, UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and Finnish Baroque Orchestra since autumn 2017.
Programme:
Franco Donatoni: Concertino No 2
Antonio Vivaldi: Overture from the opera Dorilla in Tempe
Antonio Vivaldi: Sposa son disprezzata
Unsuk Chin: snagS&Snarls
Duke Ellington: Such sweet thunder
Jimmy Van Heusen: Polka Dots and Moonbeams
Harold Arlen: Stormy Weather
John Adams: Fearful Symmetries
Tickets and fees:

Buy tickets

Basic ticket: 18.00 € – 42.00 €
Discount groups: 11.50 € – 27.00 €

Prices include service charge

The nail polish fee: 2.00 €
Avanti! (ital. forward!) is a Finnish chamber orchestra founded by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Olli Pohjola in 1983. The composition of the orchestra varies between a string quartet and a symphony orchestra depending on the situation; the starting point is the music itself, not the composition of the orchestra.

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra is a professional jazz and new rhythm music orchestra that performs in around 100 concerts and events every year. Since 1975, UMO Helsinki has released more than 50 albums and performed with international jazz stars as well as top names from Finland. The orchestra’s repertoire ranges from jazz to soul and classical music, surprisingly combining new and old.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2019, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO) is known for its skilful performances, bold and innovative working methods and creative programming. Baroque music is at its core, but the orchestra also frequently tackles works from other periods, from early Baroque to early Romanticism. The FiBO also plays new music composed for the baroque orchestra and has premiered several works commissioned by the orchestra.

Composition workshop turns hundred-year-old films into visual music

The composition course Composition Workshop for professional composers is held annually at the same time as Avant’s Summer Music Festival. This year, seven composers from Europe, Asia and America are taking part. The course will be taught by composers Jukka Tiensuu and Tomi Räisänen.

As an important part of the course, each participant has been given the task of composing a new work during the spring, which will be performed by the chamber orchestra Avanti! at a concert in connection with the Summer Play on Friday 28 June at 16.00 under the baton of conductor József Hárs in the Factory Hall of the Art Factory in Porvoo. The concert is free of charge.

“The task is different every year, but it always aims to force the composers out of their comfort zone and create something they’ve tended to avoid before,” says Jukka Tiensuu, one of the course’s co-teachers. “Through this new kind of challenge, the hope is that composers will discover a new kind of creativity lurking within themselves – to the delight of us all.”

This year’s task was to compose a musical response to an abstract film from a hundred years ago, which itself represents abstract “visual music”. The identity of the films chosen by the students was not revealed, so as not to be influenced by their authors or other historical documentation.

Jukka Tiensuu

The ideal is for the composition alone to produce an experience similar to that of the original moving image. In the concert, these films will be presented in sync with the musical counterparts created for them.

The first composition course was held in 1987. Over the years the course has been taught by Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, Jukka Tiensuu, Kaija Saariaho, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Tomi Räisänen. The Composition Workshop Association was founded in 2006 to support the organisation of the course.

This year’s participants can be found on the Composition Workshop website.

Composition workshop: fresh sound music for a century of visual music
Time: Friday 28.6.2019 16.00 (free entry)
Place: Tehdassali, Taidetehdas, Porvoo

József Hárs, conductor
Chamber Orchestra Avanti!

Photos from the 2018 Composition Workshop by Heikki Tuuli

Summer Music Children’s Concert invites you to touch the music

Touch music_2

How does the music feel? How does music change when you touch it? Chamber Orchestra Avanti! welcomes all children and young people and their parents to a concert where they can move, feel and sense the music around them.

The Sunday afternoon of Porvoo’s Suvisoito will feature an inclusive concert for children and young people, where Avant’s versatile musicians will lead the audience on a path of music and creativity. Music responds to touch. The audience is not just the recipient, but becomes part of the music.

“For the children’s concert, we have also selected works that the composers wrote in their youth. Every composer was once a child,” says Tuula Jukola-Nuorteva, a long-standing public relations professional and music educator who planned the concert. “Music frees the mind and helps us to travel to many places.”

The concert will feature works such as Jean Sibelius ‘ Vattendroppar by the young composer and parts of Franz Schubert’s first string quartet. The concert will encourage children and young people to reflect on their own creativity: every composer has written his or her first piece. Encouraged by the music, they can explore, examine and experiment with their own creativity.

The concert is best suited for children over four years old, as the programme includes participatory parts. However, all children, regardless of age, are warmly welcome to enjoy the music. There is no upper age limit for the concert.

Time: Sunday 30.6.2019 at 13.00 (duration about one hour)

Place: factory hall, Art Factory

Tickets for the children’s concert cost 15€ for one ticket or 50€ for a family ticket (4 persons) + delivery fee (from 1€ per order). Tickets for the summer concert are available on the Lippupiste website www.lippu.fi/avanti and on 0600 900 900 (1,98€/min. + pvm).

Violinist Jennifer Koh performs in Porvoo’s cafés and restaurants

American violinist Jennifer Koh is one of the international guests at this summer’s Suvisoitto Festival. In addition to the concert in Avanti Hall on Friday evening, she will perform in the centre of Porvoo. Saturday 29.6. at 14-16 .

Visitors to the Summer Concert will therefore have a unique opportunity to hear works commissioned by Koh for solo violin in intimate mini-concerts in Porvoo’s atmospheric cafés and restaurants. Admission to the pop-up concerts is free.

Afternoon with violinist Jennifer Koh

Schedule for Saturday 29.6.2019:

14.00-14.20 For example (Rihkamakatu 2, Porvoo)

15.00-15.20 Café Cabriole (Piispankatu 30, Porvoo)

15.30-15.50 Bistro Gustaf (Mannerheiminkatu 9, Porvoo)

* performance at KeaKafe at 14.30 has been cancelled!

 

Photos: For example

Jukka Tiensuu’s Theoton gets its Finnish premiere in Porvoo with sheng virtuoso Wu Wei

Wu Wei by Sanne Donders

The leading sheng virtuoso of our time, Wu Wei, will perform at the opening concert of the Porvoo Summer Festival, which will feature the Finnish premiere of Jukka Tiensuu’s Theoton, a concerto for sheng and orchestra. The concert will be conducted by conductor and artistic director of the festival Baldur Brönnimann.

Jukka Tiensuu’s Teoton was composed for Wu Wei in 2015. The work was premiered in Seoul by Ilan Volkov conducting the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. The work will now be performed for the first time in Finland at the opening concert of the Porvoo Summer Festival on Thursday 27 June 2019 at 19.00 in Avanti Hall. After the concert, we will enjoy improvisations by sound designer and musician Tuomas Norvio and Wu Wei. Avanti! Lounge is free of charge.

Wu Wei will also perform in Pernaja Church on Wednesday 26 June at the concert King Henry VIII meets Emperor Jiajing. The concert will feature songs from 16th and 17th century Europe performed by the Avant gambay ensemble and tenor Taavi Oramo.

The world’s leading sheng master

The sheng is a Chinese or Korean mouth organ made of bamboo, with a sound similar to a harmonica, and belongs to the ancestors of the accordion. According to legend, the sound of the instrument is reminiscent of the cry of a Phoenix bird. Written records of the sheng date back to the 13th century BC.

Sheng has been a player for both the people and the courts. It has been heard at the Beijing Opera and Buddhist ceremonies, as an ensemble and solo instrument. A kind of solemn archaicism characterises the sheng’s character and sound; it is at once a living relic of the past and a strange visitor from the future.

Wu Wei has played a pivotal role in the new role of the sheng as a musical instrument in contemporary Western music. He has premiered over 400 works, including more than 20 concerts. Wu Wei has also composed for his instrument. Wu Wei has brought a new sound to contemporary music that is also thousands of years old. In his hands, the sheng has become a musical instrument that unites East and West, combining traditions.

Programme

Opening concert of the Summer Music Festival: Drakar och danser

Thursday 27.6.2019 at 19.00, Avanti Hall

Johannes Schöllhorn: Anamorphoses, Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugues by

Frank Martin: Petite Symphonie Concertante (Adagio – Allegro con moto – Adagio – Allegretto alla marcia)

Jukka Tiensuu: Theoton, concerto for sheng and orchestra (Fever, Adrift, Game, Bliss)

Tickets and festival bus

Tickets for the summer concert are on sale on Lippupiste’s website www.lippu.fi/avanti and by calling 0600 900 900 (1,98€/min. + pvm). Festival pass enquiries directly from Avant’s office (contact details below). As usual, the festival bus will take you directly from Kiasma to the Art Factory and back after the concert. Bus tickets are also sold by Lippupiste. Bus timetables can be found here.

More information:

Avant’s office, tel. 050 581 0409

Photo by Sanne Donders

American violinist Jennifer Koh to star at Porvoo Summer Music Festival

Jennifer Koh by Juergen Frank _5

Violinist Jennifer Koh will be the star of the Porvoo Summer Festival this summer. She will perform György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto at the Avanti Hall concert on Friday 28 June. Composed in 1990, the Violin Concerto is a lyrical work at its core. The harmony is blurred by natural-sounding French horns and four ocarinas reminiscent of flutes, with the addition of two flutes and a wide range of percussion. The result is an intimate but explosive soundscape of chamber music.

Friday’s concert will also feature Richard Strauss’ Introduction to the opera Capriccio and Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony for 23 solo instruments. The concert will be conducted by Baldur Brönnimann, conductor and artistic director of the Suvisoitto Festival.

After the concert Avanti! Lounge with Jennifer Koh offers the audience the opportunity to meet the evening’s soloist in the warmth of the Art Factory, as Koh performs solo vocal works by Kaija Saariaho and Missy Mazzoli, among others, before dark. On Saturday 29 June from 14-16, Koh will perform in Porvoo’s cafés, where he will play commissioned solo vocal works in intimate mini-concerts.

An uncompromising interpreter of new music

Jennifer Koh is known as an open-minded and versatile artist and an uncompromising performer of new music. She has premiered over 70 works during her career, with compositions by Kaija Saariaho and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Koh has studied Finnish music extensively and has also recorded Uuno Klam’s Violin Concerto (BIS).

The latest issue of Rondo Classic (5/2019) features a review of the latest Saariaho x Koh album: “American violinist Jennifer Koh, who will be a guest at Porvoo’s Suvisoito next summer, makes the sensual profile of Saariaho’s music glow, at times delicate and at times demonic.” The music of Saariaho, interpreted by Koh, will be enjoyed at Suvisoito.

Tickets and festival bus

Tickets for the summer concert are on sale on Lippupiste’s website www.lippu.fi/avanti and by calling 0600 900 900 (1,98€/min. + pvm). Festival pass enquiries directly from Avant’s office.

As usual, the festival bus will take you from Helsinki to Porvoo and back after the concert. Bus tickets are also sold by Lippupiste.

Jennifer Koh’s homepage

Photos by Jürgen Frank

Humppavanti!, Matti Salminen and M.A. Numminen meet at Porvoo Suvisoito

Humppavanti! Salminen and Numminen
Come and join Humppavant’s Saturday crew! The bar is open and a dance floor has been set up in the Avanti Hall of the Art Factory.

What does it sound like when the surreal cult band Humppavanti plays neo-Norwegian jazz, straightens out bends from opera classics or pays homage to a late tango master?

Avant’s virtuoso musicians solo and invite two iconic big MUMS: M.A. Numminen and big-Masa Matti Salminen. The ensemble, premiered at the Cologne Philharmonic in 2016, will have its Finnish premiere at Porvoo Suvisoito on Saturday 29 June at 19.00 in Avanti Hall.

Fast-paced and dangerous arrangements by Timo Hietala. Featuring improv hustlers from Minna Pensola to Mika Kallio, jazz hustlers from Seppo Kantonen to Panu Savolainen, contemporary clowns to hippie hustlers, with all the spices.

Don’t dump come and listen to the hops!

Tickets on sale at Lippupiste.

The programme for the Summer Music Festival can be found at: https://avantimusic.fi/suvisoiton-ohjelma/

Photos by Heikki Tuuli and Tomas Wennbom

Avant’s XXXIV Summerfest is coming – programme published, tickets on sale

Summer play on FB and instagram 1920 x 1920

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.

Avanti! At the Music House: A Mad Song

Mad Song 23.3.2019
Sat 23.3.2019 at 15.00, Music Hall Rehearsal Hall Paavo
Avanti! brings to the Music Hall’s Rehearsal Hall in Pavo the rustic Baroque music of the rosy alleys of 17th century London.
Baroque music was much more than Bach in churches. In the taverns and in the streets, music was sung and danced to, and it was not meant to praise God. The melancholy songs of the people told of both mad happiness and misfortune, and no nuance was spared in their interpretation.
Performers:
Jukka Rautasalo
viola da gamba and musical direction
uuli Lindeberg
song
Anthony Marini
violin and tenor viola
Ilkka Heinonen
honeysuckle and violone
Matias Häkkinen
harpsichord
Tickets: from. from €8(Ticketmaster or Musiikkitalo ticket office)
The concert is part of a joint AUF concert series by Avant, UMO and FiBO, which includes the following concerts:
Sat 23.3. at 15 Avanti!: A Mad Song
Thu 18.4.2019 at 13:00 UMO & Iro Haarla: Silent Music
Wed 8.5. at 13:00 FiBO: Brexit Music
With an AUF ticket, you can listen to all three concerts in the series at a discount. A single ticket to a concert at the Music Centre costs €7 and a series ticket €13.50. If you buy tickets from Ticketmaster, a service charge of €1/€3 will be added to the price.