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.
