Oulu Sinfonia’s autumn programme brings together monumental works from the past and some of today’s most compelling contemporary music. Oulu Sinfonia Open will lead the audience to the themes on 14 August with a concert led by Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba at the Hupisaari Open-Air Theatre as part of Oulu Arts’ Night. The three-part event combines music with an introduction to the highlights of the season. In August, the orchestra also performs at the Sounds of Luosto festival (2 August), the Oulunsalo Soi Festival (9 August), and the Helsinki Festival (19–20 August) with the Bach–Torikka–Uotinen concert series. The month also includes the orchestra’s traditional outreach weeks, when small ensembles visit schools, care homes, shopping centres and churches around the region.
The Fate Symphony concert on Thursday 11 September, conducted by Estonian maestra Anu Tali, features not only Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony but also music by Alisson Kruusmaa and Arvo Pärt. On Thursday 30 October, Japanese conductor Nodoka Okisawa presents her compatriot Tōru Takemitsu’s cinematic Death and Resurrection, alongside Richard Strauss’s tone poem Death and Transfiguration. On Thursday 27 November, Ville Matvejeff leads a concert devoted to highlights from opera, from Mozart to Merikanto.
The 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death is marked throughout the season. His music is first heard at the Oulunsalo Soi Festival with violist Nils Mönkemeyer. Rising German piano star Elisabeth Brauß performs Shostakovich’s playful Piano Concerto No. 1 on 6 November in the Concerto or Carnival? concert. Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba takes the helm again on Wednesday 19 November with Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony in The Siege of Leningrad concert, a collaboration with the Jyväskylä Sinfonia.
Alongside Brauß, the season features violinist Johan Dalene – acclaimed by critics worldwide – performing Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto from the golden age of Hollywood (Thursday 4 September, Music at the Brink). Finnish pianist Ossi Tanner presents one of his signature works, Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor (Thursday 25 September, Rebirth).
Cello virtuoso Marko Ylönen makes a long-awaited return to Oulu to perform one of the most beloved works in the repertoire, Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor (Thursday 30 October, Death and Transfiguration). Finland’s internationally celebrated string quartet Meta4 presents the Finnish premiere of Liberi tutti, a new concerto by Italian composer Nicola Campogrande known for his neoclassical sound world (Thursday 9 October, Four-Star Concerto).
A highlight of the Ostrobothnian Contemporary Music Festival is the orchestra concert Island of Songs (Thursday 2 October). Canadian multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Owen Pallett performs songs from their critically acclaimed album Island (2020), while American soprano Katherine Manley takes on the role of William Shakespeare’s Ophelia in Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle Let Me Tell You.
From within the orchestra, concert master Lasse Joamets and flautist Emma Tessier take the spotlight in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Impromptu (Thursday 11 September, Fate Symphony). Meanwhile, clarinetist Michał Konopiński performs Olli Kortekangas’s Clarinet Concerto in Lemminkäinen concert on 4 December, a concert spotlighting Finnish music.
Oulu Sinfonia also brings beloved popular music to Madetoja Hall. Vocal ensemble Rajaton continues their tribute to megabands on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 October with a programme of Queen’s hits arranged by Jaakko Kuusisto and conducted by Rumon Gamba.
On Thursday 13 and Friday 14 November, actor-singer Maria Ylipää and her musical friends dive into the passionate rhythms of Astor Piazzolla’s tango compositions. Pianist Iiro Rantala joins forces with the Oulu All Star Big Band and Oulu Sinfonia for All That Jazz (10 and 11 December), an evening journeying through the entire history of jazz. The Thursday 11 December concert is followed by a Concert Club and jazz jam session at Restaurant Preludi, led by trumpeter Jukka Eskola.
Oulu Sinfonia Chamber Musicians continue their popular chamber music series across the region, with seven intimate chamber concerts in a variety of venues. These performances offer shared musical moments that bring people together—and all are free to attend.