Oulu Sinfonia’s programme for the European Capital of Culture year is filled with productions of unprecedented scale: major artistic ventures, striking concerts, world-class guest artists, great masterpieces of classical music, world premières, and tours with both orchestras and festivals.
The jubilee year 2026 opens on 16 January with the world première of opera Ovllá at the Oulu Theatre, conducted by Chief Conductor Rumon Gamba. A second conductor for the performances in January and February is Aku Sorensen. Composed by Teosto Prize winner Cecilia Damström, the opera explores Sámi history and the weight of memory. The libretto, written from a Sámi perspective, is by Juho-Sire/Siri Broch Johansen, with joiks by Ánndaris/Anders Rimpi. The production is directed by Heta Haanperä.
In 2025, Oulu Sinfonia, Ensemble Nylandia and Waltteri Torikka performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach at the Helsinki Festival, with dance legend Jorma Uotinen creating the choreography. Bach–Torikka–Uotinen will be experienced at Oulu Cathedral on 19 and 20 February. On 17 April comes the long-awaited premiere of MASS (1971), monumental stage work by Leonard Bernstein, who is also known from West Side Story. Alongside Oulu Sinfonia, the production brings together blues and rock ensembles, the Lapland Military Band, mixed choir, children’s choir and vocal ensemble. Collaboration with JoJo – Oulu Dance Centre brings professional dancers and dance-teacher students from Oamk to the stage. The central role is sung by baritone Ville Rusanen, with direction and choreography by Petri Kauppinen.
The spring’s guest appearances begin on 26 February with violinist Malin Broman and conductor Simon Crawford-Phillips. Broman performs Daniel Börtz’s Double Concerto for One, a work in which the soloist moves effortlessly between violin and viola. Finnish Broadcasting Company will record the concert for broadcast on 4 March on Yle Radio 1. More world-class violin artistry follows on 13 May, when Sueye Park, winner of the 2025 Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, performs Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Pietari Inkinen. Ukrainian violinist Aleksey Semenenko appears just before Easter on 2 April, performing Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with conductor Jascha von der Goltz.
Orchestral collaborations include an evening of Estonian Music with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (19 March) at the Oulu Music Festival, conducted by Risto Joost. The programme centres on Arvo Pärt’s meditative piano concerto Lamentate, inspired by Anish Kapoor’s monumental sculpture Marsyas at Tate Modern. The soloist is Maximilian Fagerlund, the most recent winner of the Leevi Madetoja Piano Competition. A spectacular joint concert with the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra crowns the spring season on 29 May with György Ligeti’s Atmosphères, heard in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey; Sergei Prokofiev’s fiercely driven Scythian Suite; and one of the best-loved orchestral works of all time, Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Beloved favourite film-with-live-orchestra concerts continue. On 26 March, Madetoja Hall screens the documentary Tale of the Sleeping Giants with Erkki Lasonpalo conducting Panu Aaltio’s evocative score. Finland’s uniquely joyful May Day traditions take centre stage at the May Day Matinee, featuring local choirs and surprise soloists from within the orchestra. Tutti Juttu (21–22 May), created with Oulu music classes, reunites young musicians and seasoned professionals in a tradition spanning more than 30 years.
For the Europe Day Concert (9 May), musicians from across Europe gather in Oulu. Tenor Tuomas Katajala performs Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde alongside Norwegian mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland. A new orchestral work by Lara Poe has been jointly commissioned by the festival, Naantali Music Festival and Sinfonia Lahti. Oulu Sinfonia closes the spring season with a guest appearance at the Naantali Music Festival.
The autumn season opens with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 16 in D Major, performed by the legendary Angela Hewitt, who brings her Mozart Project to Oulu. On 8 October, American violist Jennifer Stumm makes her Oulu debut with one of her instrument’s repertoire’s cornerstones, Béla Bartók’s neoclassical Viola Concerto, conducted by Vuokko Lahtinen. A week later, cello star Anastasia Kobekina performs Trembling Earth, the newly written cello symphony by Bryce Dessner – known also as guitarist of The National – with André de Ridder, Artistic Director of the Ostrobothnian Contemporary Music Festival, conducting.
Local mastery is celebrated on 10 September when pianists Mika Rännäli and Vanessa Cunha, recently returned to Oulu from New York, join forces in Francis Poulenc’s sparkling Concerto for Two Pianos, conducted by Leo McFall. The distinguished Finnish double bassist Maria Krykov, principal bass of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, performs Giovanni Bottesini’s F-sharp minor concerto on 17 September under the baton of Italian conductor Nil Venditti, who makes her Oulu debut. On 5 November, Oulu Sinfonia’s piccolo player Carlotta Petri gives the world premiere of Kalevi Aho’s new Piccolo Concerto.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem will be heard on 30 October in a joint performance with Jyväskylä Sinfonia. On Singles’ Day, 11 November, Oulu welcomes the Oulu All Star Big Band for a performance of Wynton Marsalis’s Swing Symphony, an electrifying journey through the history of American jazz by the nine-time Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning legend.
From 1 to 3 October, Madetoja Hall presents a new interpretation of Carmen, in which Georges Bizet’s music transforms into a flamenco work shaped by the acclaimed dancer Israel Galván. Carmen’s story is told by three opera singers, with the Male Choir Huutajat as the chorus. The production has previously been performed at the Les Nuits de Four Viére -festival under the direction of Maria Itkonen.
In November, Beyond the Sky is presented as part of the Lumo Light Festival. Inspired by the life’s work of Oulu-based astrophotographer Jukka-Pekka Metsävainio, the piece intertwines with Lauri Porra’s music in a truly unique way. The performance is conducted by Dalia Stasevska.
At the end of the year, Oulu Sinfonia participates in the world premiere of the musical Snowball, which tells the story of Santa Claus’s (Kristo Salminen) goddaughter Krista (Saara Aalto). The musical is written and composed by Douglas Pashley, directed by Paul Carrington, and conducted by Kristian Nyman.
August is traditionally a month of audience outreach, with open-air Oulu Sinfonia Open concerts at the Hupisaari Open-Air Theatre. In addition, a shared hymn-singing event Hymns We Hum will be held in Ainola Park in collaboration with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Oulu, inviting everyone to sing the hymns that have become beloved companions along life’s journey.