Oulu Sinfonia’s August is full of events, from the Elojazz festival and outdoor concerts to musical moments in care homes.
Oulu Sinfonia will open its concert season at the Oulu Music Centre on Thursday, 31 August, with John Storgårds conducting. Storgårds, recently appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, brings a program faithful to his style to the Madetoja hall in the concert called Memories, where you can hear both contemporary music and marginalised classics. The soloist is Kari Kriikku, who interprets Jukka Tiensuu’s Missa for clarinet and orchestra.
Storgårds, who celebrates his 60th anniversary this year, will also perform on 1 September in the Tulindberg Hall at the concert Centuries of Violin – this time as a violinist. Jouko Laivuori plays the piano and the harpsichord in the chamber concert.
The orchestra has always considered it essential that even those who, for whatever reason, cannot attend the concerts in the Madetoja Hall get to enjoy the musicians’ performances. The tradition that has delighted the inhabitants of Oulu for many years will continue in August as the ensembles of Oulu Sinfonia musicians perform in daycare centers, schools and care homes around the city.
Joonas Pekonen, the orchestra’s concertmaster during the autumn season, will lead the string orchestra. The tour of the string orchestra ends with a concert open for all at the Shopping Centre Valkea on Friday, 11 August, at 2 pm. Matias Nässi, Oulu Sinfonia’s French horn sub-principal, conducts the wind orchestra. The free concert of the wind orchestra takes place in Shopping Centre Valkea on 25 August starting at 2 pm.
August begins with a celebratory concert on Wednesday, 2 August, when multiple birthday parties are celebrated in the Madetoja Hall. The Elojazz festival turns 35, and the Jazz 20 registered association celebrates its venerable 50th anniversary. Jukka Eskola will complete ten years as the festival’s artistic director with a brand-new flugelhorn concerto composed by Jukka Linkola, who in turn celebrates 50 years as an artist.
In addition to the concerto, we will hear music by the soulful Oulu-born singer Johanna Iivanainen with new orchestral arrangements by Teemu Takanen. At the Elojazz Celebrates concert, the soft-voiced singer will be accompanied by Oulu Sinfonia and a group of brilliant musicians with Mikko Iivanainen on the guitar, Tuomas J. Turunen on the piano, Antti Lötjönen on the contrabass and Teppo Mäkynen on the drums.
The Oulu Sinfonia autumn includes a traditional visit on Thursday, 17 August at the Hupisaaret Summer Theatre. As part of the Oulu Arts Night, you can enjoy three settings led by chief conductor Rumon Gamba and hear what the orchestra plans for its autumn season. Admission to the concerts is free. The public can buy concert tickets for the autumn season during the event. The brilliant soloists are Oulu Sinfonia’s concertmaster Mikko Sorri and trombonist Jukka Myllys who presents his skills on the baritone horn.
Babar and Tubby the Tuba take the children and the youthful into the world of fairy tales. Francis Poulenc’s story about Babar, the elephant dressed as a human, is one of the classics of children’s music. George Kleinsinger’s story Tubby the Tuba tells about a musical instrument that finds its own beautiful voice. The concert narrator is Virva Pietilä.
The middle concert is a trip around the world, transported by classic dance hits. The route starts from Finland and continues to the Greek archipelago, the swirling Vienna, and the plains of Eastern Europe. The journey culminates in Times Square, bathed in light and the tunes of Leonard Bernstein’s musicals.
In the late-night concert, you will hear the cult classic Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet from 1971 by Gavin Bryars, the experimental music pioneer. The work is an opinioned yet lulling piece where the gospel song sung by a homeless man recorded on tape blends into slow orchestral chords. It is the quiet yet powerful voice of the underprivileged, forgotten and silent.
Text: Oulu Sinfonia
Photo: Johanna Iivanainen