Ms Elina Siltanen is to transfer to a new post in the City administration after 13 years as General Manager of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Among the major achievements of her term in office she quotes the favourable trend in orchestra operations, the significant increase in audience figures and the completion of the Helsinki Music Centre planning and building project lasting over a decade, in partnership with numerous others.

Over the past ten years, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has given 870 concerts in Helsinki to a total audience of close on a million. During the same period it has also made 35 foreign tours and released 32 CDs on the Ondine label.

Ms Siltanen now transfers to the Office of Economic Development at the City’s Economic and Planning Centre. This Office will, in the future, be focusing increasingly on the overall marketing of the City. The international know-how acquired by Ms Siltanen as Cultural Secretary at the Finnish Institute in London and as Executive Director of the Forbidden City Music Festival in Peking will reinforce the Office’s organisation and expertise in both Helsinki marketing and international event productions.

Since joining the City of Helsinki Cultural Office in 1989, Ms Siltanen has served the City for a total of 17 years in various capacities, among others as Director of the Helsinki Festival.

1883:
the first of the May Day matinées that were to become one of the longest concert traditions in Europe
1892:
the first concert of works by Jean Sibelius and the start of his close collaboration with the HPO for the next three decades
1900:
the first international tour, the highlight being the Paris Exposition. It was also the first time music by Sibelius was heard in Central Europe
1928:
the first recordings with Kajanus conducting (incl. Finlandia, the Finnish National Anthem Our Land and the patriotic March of the Men of Pori)
1934:
the first visit to England; one of the London concerts was broadcast throughout the British Empire and the performance of Finlandia was filmed
1968:
the first Finnish orchestra to tour to the USA, under Chief Conductor Jorma Panula and the young Leif Segerstam
1982:
the first Nordic orchestra to tour to Japan, under Okko Kamu
1986:
the HPO’s first recording of the complete Sibelius symphonies, with Paavo Berglund conducting
1995:
the HPO’s first gold record (the Sibelius Violin Concerto, Fried & Kamu)
2000:
the HPO adopts as its godchildren 4,500 babies born in Helsinki in the city’s 450th anniversary year
2004:
the first tour by a Finnish symphony orchestra to South America, conductor Leif Segerstam
2012:
a new HPO season-ticket record at the Helsinki Music Centre for both the spring and the autumn season

Over the past couple of decades, the Helsinki Philharmonic has won thousands of new friends. Compared with the audience figures for 1991, attendance at HPO concerts has risen 50% and the number of regular season-ticket holders no less than 300%. The seat-occupancy rate was already 87% by the time we left Finlandia Hall but leapt to 97% in the opening Music Centre season. These growth figures place the HPO right near the top of the international charts.

Nearly 40,000 schoolchildren and students have attended a symphony concert for the very first time in recent years, at the HPO’s invitation. Our godchildren during the period 2000–2007 have likewise become schoolchildren already taking a keen active interest in music. The godchild project, which got a magnificent reception, began a new cycle this year.

This autumn, 130 years will have passed since conductor-composer Robert Kajanus, then 25 years old, formed an orchestra – the present-day Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra – that was to continue playing for longer than any other professional symphony orchestra in the Nordic countries. During its autumn anniversary season the HPO will give 31 concerts at the Helsinki Music Centre and before the start of the season, in August, make guest appearances at three international festivals in Central Europe. At home in Finland, 26 will be symphony concerts, three chamber-music evenings and two family concerts.

In the course of the anniversary autumn, John Storgårds will conduct all four symphonies by Brahms. Principal Guest Conductor Olari Elts will open the season on September 5 with pianists Juho Pohjonen and Irina Zahharenkova in the first performance in Finland of Toru Takemitsu’s Quotation of Dream, a concerto for two pianos and orchestra. Also to receive their first performance in Finland will be the orchestral Eclipse by French composer Eric Tanguy on October 26 and the Lithuanian Saga by Rodion Shchedrin on October 31. Symphony No. 8 by Per Nørgård, an HPO commission, is to be premiered on September 19.

The HPO’s Artist in Residence for the opening Music Centre season 2011/2012 has been Soile Isokoski. Following her in this capacity during the season to come will be composer-conductor Olli Mustonen. During the autumn Mustonen will give a piano recital on October 23 and conduct symphony concerts on October 31 and November 1. One of the items on the programme for these concerts will be his first symphony, Tuuri. The chamber-music concert on Finnish Music Day, December 8, will also be in his hands, together with small ensembles of HPO musicians.

The eagerly-awaited VIP on October 3 & 4 is Sir Neville Marriner, bringing our Helsinki audiences a varied menu of British music. Piano music is well represented in the programme for the autumn. The brilliant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the HPO’s soloist on December 12 & 13. One of the tributes to Kaija Saariaho on her 60th birthday is a concert conducted by Susanna Mälkki on October 12 that will include Saariaho’s orchestral Orion. Over the autumn, three of the HPO’s own section leaders will be singled out as soloists: Torsten Tiebout (viola) on September 11, Pasi Pirinen (trumpet) on September 28 and Mika Paajanen (French horn) on October 3 & 4.

Vocal works also feature strongly on the programme for the autumn season: mezzo-soprano Virpi Räisänen will be presenting an interesting Phèdre programme on November 28 & 29. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 Ode to Joy with which the anniversary season ends will mark the debut of the Music Centre Choir coached by Tapani Länsiö with the HPO. Emeritus Chief Conductor Leif Segerstam will conduct, with Pia Freund (soprano), Tuija Knihtilä (mezzo-soprano), Jorma Silvasti (tenor) and Mika Kares (bass) as the soloists.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has played at Finlandia Hall for 40 years. We have had a chequered history there and we now stand on the brink of a new era – at the Helsinki Music Centre! Now, for the first time, the Orchestra will have the use of a hall designed expressly for the performance of acoustic concert music, and our musicians will have premises of their own in which to practise and work as in any ordinary job.

The Music Centre will bring many changes for audiences and the Orchestra alike. The programmes for our first seasons there have been planned on an even broader basis than before, because we want to give our audiences a chance to hear different kinds of ensembles and programme packages in all our concert series. In addition to ordinary symphony orchestra concerts we are therefore offering chamber music, recitals, swing and jazz. We are doing all this in order to find out just how the new hall responds; we can then adjust our programming accordingly. Autumn 2011 will thus be a pilot, running-in season.

To mark the start of this new era we have invited two artists of international renown to join us. Soprano Soile Isokoski, artist-in-residence for our first Music Centre concert season 2011/2012, is to do six different projects with us, culminating in a recording to be made in April 2012. The other new partner is Estonian Olari Elts, who begins a three-year term as our Principal Guest Conductor in August 2011. We are pleased that these international artists have agreed to enter into a long-term partnership and to appear with us regularly.

The majority of the autumn’s guest artists are Finns. The idea is to give our previous Chief Conductors and other close partners a chance to be among the first to sample the long-awaited concert hall. Chief Conductor John Storgårds is under contract to us until the end of the 2013/2014 season. Of the move to the Music Centre he says: “I am especially proud to be able to conduct the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at this fascinating juncture as the new concert hall opens this autumn.”

The HPO’s present 3,000 season ticket holders are bursting with curiosity as we move to the Music Centre. We are offering these dedicated listeners four different sets of 5-6 concerts. During the autumn season we are also putting on four gala concerts on specific themes: on October 7 we join forces with the Women’s Bank, on November 1 the winners of the Sibelius Singing Competition will be our soloists, on November 18 star pianist Denis Matsuev will perform in a concert under the auspices of the international Rachmaninoff Foundation, and on December 17 the Music Centre’s opening season ends with a visit by the magnificent Latvian State Choir under our Principal Guest Conductor Olari Elts.

www.hel.fi/filharmonia

Chief Conductor John Storgård’s third term as Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has continued to ride the crest of the highest acclaim. Judging from their glowing comments and the steady rise in ticket sales, our audiences have been satisfied. The number of season tickets purchased for autumn 2010 set a new record of  2,810.

The five months of the spring season will take in 25 concerts at Finlandia Hall and three at the University Hall. Six of the concerts will be conducted by John Storgårds. In March the orchestra will give a guest concert in Riga under John Storgårds and in April in Pärnu and Tallinn under Okko Kamu. The other maestros down for the spring season include Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Olari Elts, Stefan Solyom and Pietari Inkinen.

Interesting first visits will be made by some artists from, among others, the Berlin Philharmonic and across the Atlantic: Ralph Sauer, for many years principal trombone in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will appear with the HPO brass on March 24 at the University Hall. Wenzel Fuchs, principal clarinet in the Berlin Philharmonic, is the HPO’s soloist at the University Hall on March 3 and Radek Baborak, principal horn, at Finlandia Hall on April 28.

Two string players will be making their HPO debut: cellist Daniel Müller-Schott on January 20, in the third concert in the Walton & Friends series, and David Aaron Carpenter, one of the finest violists, who will also record with the HPO under Vladimir Ashkenazy on April 14. Two major percussion projects will bring to Helsinki British percussionist Colin Currie, for a programme including Rautavaara’s Incantations on January 12 & 13 and the Glorious Percussion ensemble for the first performance in Finland of a concerto by Sofia Gubaidulina on May 12.

Vocal-music lovers can look forward to a real feast on January 26 & 27 when British soprano Emma Bell sings Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder. At its Musica nova Helsinki concert on February 4 the HPO will play the impressive monodrama Das Gehege by Wolfgang Rihm with soprano Rayanne Dupuis as the soloist. Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde will introduce HPO audiences to Estonian tenor Juhan Tralla. Baritone Gabriel Suovanen is the other vocal soloist in this vast work at the season’s closing concert on May 18.

The spring’s pianists each represent the finest in their field: Boris Berezovsky, Artistic Director and initiator of the Medtner Festival, on February 9 & 10, Henri Sigfridsson on February 17, the Spanish brothers Victor and Luis del Valle on March 31 and Marc-André Hamelin, a firm favourite with Helsinki audiences, on April 20.

The following are a just few more highlights of the forthcoming season: Peter von Bagh presenting the now traditional concert of 20th century screen classics at 3 pm on January 6, and the HPO strings, coached by the brilliant violin pedagogue Mi-Kyung Lee, in a concert at the University Hall on April 7. The widely-acclaimed Sunday series of chamber music recitals at the Helsinki City Hall will be back on the programme again. And what would May 1 be in Helsinki without the HPO’s light-hearted May Day concert, now to be held for the 129th time? This afternoon concert will be conducted by Nick Davies of the Vantaa Pops Orchestra.

Season tickets for spring 2011 from Lippupiste until December 31, 2010. Single tickets (€20/13/6) on sale from January 5, 2011. Brochures from Lippupiste outlets and, e.g., libraries.

John Storgårds’ second year as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has met with great acclaim. Our audiences have demonstrated their approval by purchasing a record 2,500 season tickets for the autumn just ended; this is the best result for nearly thirty years.

The five months of the forthcoming spring season will take in 25 concerts at Finlandia Hall, three at the University Hall and one at St John’s Church. Chief Conductor John Storgårds will be conducting seven of the concerts. In March he will take the HPO to the Mahler Festival in Stockholm and on its first visit to the Alandica concert hall in Mariehamn in the island province of Åland (March 16). The series of chamber music recitals at City Hall that got such an excellent reception last spring will be back on the programme.

The artists making their HPO debut this spring will be some of the finest on the international circuit: Young-Chang Cho (March 3&4), the South Korean cellist, will also be appearing with the HPO cello section on March 7 at the University Hall. Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, makes his Finnish debut as the soloist with the HPO on April 22, and German violin comet Augustin Hadelich – one of the great young talents to emerge in recent years – on May 26&27.

In January an unusual group of soloists will be arriving from India to premiere a concerto commissioned from Eero Hämeenniemi with the HPO on January 21&22. They are the celebrated Sruthi Laya percussion ensemble, this time consisting of four players.

In honour of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, the programme for the spring will feature both his cello and his piano concerto, while tribute will be paid to Gustav Mahler, born 150 years ago, with performances of his fifth and seventh symphonies. The Walton and Friends concert series will stroll through the 2010-2012 seasons, reminding listeners in words and music of a somewhat overlooked British composer and his contemporaries.

Vocal-music lovers can look forward to the first performance in Finland of the Johannes Passion by Sofia Gubaidulina, to be conducted by Leif Segerstam on March 31, and to Olari Elts’ rendering of Mendelssohn’s oratorio Paulus at St John’s Church on May 6. Excerpts from Wagner’s Parsifal can be heard in a concert version conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste on February 3, with mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi and Swedish tenor Michael Weinius as the soloists.

Other highlights of the spring season include the return of the Twelfth Night concert of film music presented by Peter von Bagh, and the HPO brass under Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet, in a programme entitled Tango and Symphony on January 14. Saxophonist Jukka Perko will be following in the footsteps of Charlie Parker on March 20, and the now traditional spring sing-along will be held with the Rajaton vocal ensemble on May 12.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra begins the autumn season with a concert conducted by Okko Kamu at the Golden Jubilee Turku Music Festival in which the soloists are Valeria Resjan and the HPO’s own principal trumpet Pasi Pirinen (August 15). During the Helsinki Festival (on August 26) it will give a space concert with John Storgårds designed for the whole family, to mark the International Year of Astronomy.

The Baltic Sea Festival has invited the HPO to the Berwald Hall in Stockholm. The soloist in this concert conducted by John Storgårds is the orchestra’s own cellist Samuli Peltonen and the programme will include the premiere of a new work by Kimmo Hakola as a prelude to Sibelius’s second symphony (August 30).

To mark the historical events of 1809, when Finland passed from Swedish to Russian rule, the HPO is joining forces with the Guards’ Band for a gala concert to be conducted by Emeritus Chief Conductor Leif Segerstam (September 3). The orchestra begins its own season at Finlandia Hall on September 10. The visiting artist in this concert conducted by John Storgårds will be pianist Alexei Lyubimov in Lamentate for piano and orchestra by Arvo Pärt. Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 launches the Chief Conductor’s Brahms series, to be continued on October 22 and November 5 and next spring.

The concert repertoire for the autumn season is spiced with some interesting new works starting with the Pärt work and continuing with the Piano Concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür with Laura Mikkola as the soloist (October 8), HK Gruber’s Busking for trumpet, accordion, banjo and strings starring Håkan Hardenberger (October 22), the premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Partita (November 11 & 12) and a visit from the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra premiering the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola by Anders Eliasson (November 25 & 26).

Chief Conductor John Storgårds is to conduct nine concerts at Finlandia Hall during the autumn season. Among the visiting maestros are Leif Segerstam, Pietari Inkinen, Dmitri Slobodeniouk and Juha Kangas. Making their conducting debut with the HPO are Brazilian Robert Minczuk (October 28 & 29) and German Andreas Spering, the latter in a performance of the Handel/Mozart Messiah (December 17). The autumn’s talent spot is Swedish Wagner baritone Marcus Jupither (September 24).

The stars in the autumn’s galaxy of soloists are among the finest on the international firmament: in addition to those already mentioned, audiences can look forward to a visit by soprano Camilla Nylund (September 30 & October 1), violin virtuoso Vadim Repin in the Brahms Concerto (October 14 & 15) and pianist Roland Pöntinen in Grieg Concerto (November 11 & 12). The soloists in the guest concert by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra are Ulf Wallin, violin, and Lars Anders Tomter, viola (November 25 & 26), while musicians from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s own ranks Pekka Kauppinen, Tuomas Ylinen, Anni Haapaniemi and Mikko-Pekka Svala will star in the Sinfonia concertante by Bohuslav Martinu (September 16 & 17) and Petri Keskitalo in the Tuba Concerto by John Williams (November 5).

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Ondine have renewed their agreement, thus ensuring that quality recordings will continue to be forthcoming. During the autumn the orchestra will be recording works by, among others, Klami and Tiensuu with John Storgårds as the conductor and music by Rautavaara under Leif Segerstam. The autumn foreign tour is to Budapest and Vienna on November 26-29.

The scheme by which the HPO takes music out into the Helsinki suburbs continues in autumn 2009. Free concerts for both children and adults will accordingly be held out in various suburbs.

HPO autumn season tickets will be on sale at Lippupiste from May 13 to August 28.

Chief Conductor John Storgårds is now half way through his first concert season as Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the results have been most promising. Our audiences have expressed their approval of the new maestro; 2,400 season tickets were sold for the autumn 2008 and the average attendance rate was no less than 89 per cent.

The five months of the spring season 2009 soon to begin will take in 28 concerts at Finlandia Hall, one at St John’s Church and a dozen or so chamber music recitals across the city. Chief Conductor John Storgårds will conduct eight of the concerts and two recordings.

Making their debut HPO appearance on the podium this spring will be German maestro Rolf Beck (March 12) and Cem Mansur, a conductor launched on a fine career in St. Petersburg and Central Europe (April 16). Meanwhile the Spanish pianist brothers Victor and Luis del Valle (January 15), violinists Erik Schumann (January 21 & 22) and Barnabas Kelemen (March 4 & 5) and Scottish flautist Katherine Bryan (January 29) give their first performances as soloists with the HPO.

Ricardo Casero (trombone) will join the orchestra’s own trombonist Valtteri Malmivirta for a performance of Christian Lindberg’s Double Concerto on April 9. Other HPO musicians will also be singled out as soloists during the spring season: HPO leader Eriikka Maalismaa will perform the Violin Concerto by Fredrik Pacius on February 5, and cellist Jussi Vähälä will join his sister, Elina Vähälä, in Rozsa’s Sinfonia concertante on March 18 & 19. The generations will, furthermore, meet when Sanna Iljin, the talented pianist daughter of cellist Veli-Matti Iljin, debuts as the soloist in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 2.

Starring in the first performance in Finland of the interesting monologue opera Neither (Beckett-Feldman) on February 12, as part of the Musica nova Helsinki festival of contemporary music, is Petra Hoffmann. At the season’s closing concerts on May 27 & 28 the spotlight will be on the promising Swedish soprano Susanna Andersson. Mendelssohn’ Elijah at St John’s Church on March 12 has an impressive band of soloists, Soile Isokoski, Monica Groop, Markus Schäfer and Tuomas Pursio, backed by the Dominante and Murtosointu choirs.

To mention just a few more special events during the spring season: on April 2 audiences are once again invited to a karaoke session with orchestral accompaniment. Wielding the baton this time will be Atso Almila. This great sing-along is back by popular request. Taking the Finlandia Hall stage on May 1 is the Finnish bass Matti Salminen, aka Esa Pasa. The world-famous Raschèr Saxophone Quartet is to premiere a Concerto by Kalevi Aho on April 23. The HPO is one of the four commissioning orchestras.

The spring’s most eagerly awaited concert – at least among young listeners – is undoubtedly the concert on May 18 featuring music from the Harry Potter films and preceded by a Hogwarts gathering in the Finlandia Hall foyer. There will be music for tiny tots at the free concerts produced in collaboration with the Helsinki Neighbourhood Project and for older folk new monthly chamber music recitals on Sunday afternoons at Helsinki City Hall.

Prestigious French Diapason d’Or for HPO-YL Kullervo

The disc of Sibelius’s Kullervo Symphony by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the YL Male Voice Choir conducted by Leif Segerstam, released to great critical acclaim in the international press, has been awarded a prestigious Diapason d’Or 2008. The soloists in the Ondine recording (ODE 1122-5) are Soile Isokoski, soprano, and Tommi Hakala, baritone.

Diapason, France’s leading classical disc magazine, annually singles out classical discs for its prestigious Diapason d’Or – awards on a par with those of Britain’s Gramophone. The recording of Kullervo received the prize for symphonic music, chosen by a jury of music editors, and the gala ceremony was held in Paris on Thursday, November 20.

Kullervo featured as one of the best discs in the July-August issue of Diapason. According to the review, “Leif Segerstam firmly places himself at the summit of the [Kullervo] discography. (…) Isokoski is quite simply unsurpassable. The YL Male Voice Choir confirms that it is one of the finest contemporary interpreters of Sibelius’s music and the HPO heeds the conductor’s wishes with an instrumental quality backed by profound vision.”

The recording by star soprano Soile Isokoski and the Helsinki Philharmonic under Leif Segerstam (ODE 1080-5) of Luonnotar and other songs by Sibelius with orchestral accompaniment won a BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Year award in 2007.

Kullervo was the second Ondine release to win a Diapason d’Or. The first was a Sibelius disc by Mikko Franck and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (ODE 953-2) in 2000.

Einojuhani Rautavaara, internationally one of the most highly acclaimed and renowned Finnish composers of all times, will be 80 on October 9 this year. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is pleased and honoured to have worked with Rautavaara for over half a century, performing and recording music by him more than 200 times including 20 world premieres in all.

The HPO has, among others, premiered his Second Symphony (1957), the orchestral Anadyomene (1968), the Cello Concerto (1968), the Sixth Symphony Vincentiana (1992), the Third Piano Concerto (1999) and the Adagio celeste (2000) for string orchestra, and in recent years, particularly, it has given the first performance in Finland of new orchestral works by him. In May 2002 the HPO put on a Rautavaara Festival masterminded by Mikko Franck presenting a cross-section of the composer’s output.

On Wednesday October 8 (with a repeat on October 9) the HPO under Olli Mustonen is to give the first performance in Finland of Rautavaara’s new A Tapestry of Life, a joint commission from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic. It was premiered in Auckland in April this year under the young Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen. Leif Segerstam will be recording it with the HPO for Ondine at the end of October.

The HPO discs for Ondine of works by Einojuhani Rautavaara have won great international acclaim. In 1997 the symphony Angel of Light won a Cannes Classical Award and was nominated for a Grammy. The following year a Cannes Classical Award went to the CD of Angels and Visitations. On the Last Frontier (an HPO commission), The Journey, Garden of Spaces (also including the Cantus Arcticus and Clarinet Concerto), Song of My Heart (2006), starring baritone Gabriel Suovanen and the Manhattan Trilogy (2008) have subsequently been added to the HPO’s Rautavaara collection.. The third Piano Concerto, Gift of Dreams, commissioned by the soloist, Vladimir Ashkenazy, is another HPO-Rautavaara release on the Ondine label.

Rautavaara has been prolific in a wide range of genres: operas, symphonies, concertos, solo works, vocal and chamber music. In the course of his long career he has experimented with the most varied of styles and modes of expression, but the core element of his art is not so much style as his firm faith in his inner visions, for they, above all, determine the nature of the music. Quoting Thomas Mann, Rautavaara says that each work has its own metaphysical will, and in his famous personal definition he describes himself as a midwife helping music into the world.

Of his new Tapestry Rautavaara says:

“As a young boy I was presented with a book of poetry by Södergran and later I set several poems from it for chorus. Stars Swarming is a surrealistic night vision, where stars keep falling in the garden until the lawn is full of splinters. In Halcyon Days the impulse comes from a simple, monotonous repetition of a triplet. From this background a melody is born, a slowly ascending cantabile. Passionate, even violent moments are met, but they also seem to belong to those happy days.

”Sighs and Tears have their share in the tapestry of life as well. Cor anglais and oboe lament, and violins join them in a wide, plaintive song – until woodwinds with two harps build a colourful background for the growing cantilena. The Last Polonaise is like a variation on this solemn dance, which seems to have a special significance for me, as a symbol of finality. My opera The House of the Sun ended in a polonaise, and in Rasputin a polonaise opens the dramatic story of the end of the tsar.”

Concert by HPO at the Berlin Philharmonic on April 24 the main event of the Helsinki Week in Berlin

The Helsinki Region will be presenting itself to German audiences in April as a vibrant, busy cultural metropolis in a cavalcade of no fewer than 160 events. This will also be one of the biggest music export campaigns ever launched by Finland. Nearly 150 Finnish musicians will be performing in different parts of Berlin, at venues ranging from rock and jazz clubs to the celebrated Philharmonic Hall.

The visit is the 52nd foreign tour in the history of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, which gave its first concert in Berlin in summer 1900. It was also the Orchestra’s first visit abroad and was conducted by its founder and Chief Conductor Robert Kajanus. Travelling with the party was 34-year-old Jean Sibelius, who was thus able to witness his music’s debut reception at the famous Central European halls.

The April tour by the HPO taking in three cities will be led by the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds, who begins as the HPO’s 12th Chief Conductor in August of this year. The soloist in all three cities will be the virtuosic Sabine Meyer in the Clarinet Concerto by Carl Nielsen. The symphony is Tchaikovsky’s fifth, and as the opening number Uuno Klami’s orchestral fantasy Northern Lights will alternate with the tone poem The Bard by Jean Sibelius.

The tour concerts will be held at the Braunschweig City Hall on April 23, the Berlin Philharmonic on April 24 and the Essen Philharmonic Concert Hall – in the historic building designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto – on April 25.

Also involved in the cavalcade is the Finland Institute in Germany, which is staging a historical exhibition at the Berlin Philharmonic devoted to the musical ties between Finland and Germany. The Finland Institute is also one of the organisers of the festival of Finnish art films. One of the films to be shown there is the documentary A Cinematic Poem for Orchestra commissioned from writer-film director Pekka Hako for the HPO’s 125th anniversary in 2007.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s long and colourful history has been celebrated in many ways in the autumn season just ending: concert highlights of decades past, a film documentary of the orchestra’s 125 years, a photo exhibition touring the Helsinki culture centres and a highly-acclaimed guest concert at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

The jubilee season continues in spring 2008, looking towards the future while venerating the legacy of the orchestra’s founder, Robert Kajanus. Intertwined with the classics is a series dedicated to contemporary Nordic composers. The spring season begins on January 9&10 with the first performance in Finland of Tides, a concerto by Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin for the world-famous percussion ensemble Kroumata and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam.

Some of the orchestra’s own fine musicians will be starring as soloists in the anniversary season. On January 17 six of them will alternate as soloists in four works. The most recent of these works is Kirjo (2006) by Sampo Haapamäki, dedicated to the HPO’s bass clarinettist Heikki Nikula.

Open Mind by Swedish composer Rolf Martinsson, an orchestral work commissioned by the Baltic Sea Festival 2005, can be heard for the first time in Finland on January 23&24. Sunleif Rasmussen’s Oceanic Days, a symphony from the Faeroe Islands to receive its Finnish premiere on March 13, won its composer the Music Prize of the Nordic Council in 2002. Mark-Anthony Turnage, the enfant terrible of British music, will be back in Helsinki on March 27 for the Finnish premiere of his clarinet concerto Riffs and Refrains (2005) with Michael Collins, also the soloist at the world premiere performance.

Kimmo Hakala joins the cavalcade of new works with Maro (2006) and a Guitar Concerto to be premiered by Timo Korhonen on April 10. Of roughly the same vintage is Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Profetia, a concerto for accordion and orchestra (2007). Mika Väyrynen, the great Finnish accordion virtuoso, will be amazing audiences on April 24 with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Olari Elts.

The piano concerto Seeds of Time by Veli-Matti Puumala was to have been heard at a Musica nova Helsinki concert in spring 2007 but the pianist, Roland Pöntinen, fell ill and the performance was postponed to May 8, 2008. Arcanae Obices (2003) by Giovanni Bonato of Italy was the winner of the International Uuno Klami Composition Competition in 2004 and will be conducted on May 22 by Leif Segerstam.

In a fine category of their own in the forthcoming spring are two great singers. Matti Salminen will sing works by Sibelius, Kuula and Merikanto at concerts conducted by John Storgårds on February 6&7. On Valentine’s Day, February 14, conductor Mikko Franck joins soprano Soile Isokoski for a programme of operatic gems by Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Gounod. Both concerts will be recorded by Ondine.

The Nordic Rachmaninov Festival will be bringing along guest soloists from Russia and choirs from Sweden for a Rachmaninov concert conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste at Finlandia Hall on February 28. On Leap Day, February 29, the Swedish Radio Chamber Choir will be performing Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil at a guest concert in Helsinki Cathedral. British soprano Jane Eagle makes her HPO debut with a programme of Wagner on March 5&6.

Seven of the spring season’s 34 concerts will be conducted by Chief Conductor Emeritus Leif Segerstam and eight by John Storgårds, the HPO’s Chief Conductor as of autumn 2008. In April the orchestra will be touring to Germany under Storgårds and in May to Estonia with Segerstam. Five of the spring concerts will be broadcast live.

Principal Guest Conductor becomes Chief Conductor
John Storgårds takes over as Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s 12th Chief Conductor in autumn 2008

Violinist-conductor John Storgårds begins a four-year tenure as Chief Conductor of the 125-year-old Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in autumn 2008. He has been guest conducting the orchestra since 1994 and was appointed as its Principal Guest Conductor in autumn 2003.

Graduating in conducting with distinction from the Sibelius Academy in 1997, Storgårds at present has two other regular conducting posts in addition to the HPO: Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland (since 1996) and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic (until spring 2009). These were preceded by regular posts with the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra (1992-96), the Oulu Symphony Orchestra (1997-2000) and the Tapiola Sinfonietta (2001-03).

John Storgårds says of his appointment as Chief Conductor: “My appointment as the 12th Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is for me a great honour and challenge. It means I can continue the work initiated by Robert Kajanus in developing the oldest professional orchestra in the Nordic countries still in existence and carrying on its traditions. I will conduct about ten concerts a year and take an active part in the artistic planning of the concert repertoire.

The orchestra is at present in good shape, and the scheduled move to the new Helsinki Music Hall three years from now will add some interesting new dimensions. I can take up my post as Chief Conductor with a calm mind because I have already had a successful concert and recording partnership with the Helsinki Philharmonic for many years now.”

Elina Siltanen, the HPO’s General Manager, says of the new Chief Conductor appointment: “The Helsinki Philharmonic and John Storgårds have had a highly successful partnership for years already, and this appointment continues the orchestra’s goal-oriented policy. Our collaboration with Leif Segerstam will continue, though the responsibility for the artistic policy will, of course, pass to John Storgårds.

The Helsinki Philharmonic has, in the course of its long history, so far had only eleven Chief Conductors; these appointments are made with great consideration in the hope that the partnership will continue as long as possible. John Storgårds will continue the line of Finnish Chief Conductors, which is important to the Helsinki Philharmonic and we eagerly and confidently await his term.”

Leif Segerstam Chief Conductor Emeritus

In the 12 years since 1995 he has served as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam has annually conducted 8-12 concert productions in Finland, over 20 foreign tours and 21 recordings on the Ondine label. The most sizeable recording projects have been the complete Sibelius symphonies and the Rautavaara series of concertos, orchestral and vocal works.

As a mark of its gratitude to Leif Segerstam for his valuable contribution to the orchestra’s artistic development, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has appointed him Chief Conductor Emeritus as of October 1, 2007.

125 philharmonious years:
The Helsinki Philharmonic anniversary in photos and music

On Wednesday this week (October 3), 125 years will have passed since composer-conductor Robert Kajanus, then aged 25, conducted the debut concert, at the Helsinki University Hall, of the symphony orchestra he had just founded in 1882. There had indeed been occasional orchestral concerts in Helsinki before this date, but Kajanus’s orchestra can still be heard today.

Robert Kajanus conducted his orchestra for a record five decades. In 1914 it was taken over by the City of Helsinki. Kajanus has been succeeded by ten distinguished Chief Conductors, most recently by Leif Segerstam 1995-2007.

Kajanus encouraged the rising generation of composers – and especially Sibelius – by placing his orchestra at their disposal. Under him the orchestra gave over 80 profile concerts focusing on a particular Finnish composer. This week the HPO premieres a work it has commissioned from Jukka Tiensuu, a Concerto for Orchestra entitled Vie that will be broadcast live from the concert at Finlandia Hall beginning at 7 pm on Thursday October 4.

For its anniversary season the HPO has chosen a number of works of which it has, over the decades, given the world or Finnish premiere performance: Busoni’s Symphonic Suite (October 10 & 11), Sibelius’s Kullervo (December 6) and Finlandia (October 4), Palmgren’s Pictures from Finland (November 29), Kajanus’s Overtura sinfonica (November 1), Pingoud’s The Face of the City (November 7 & 8), Sallinen’s Symphony no. 1 (October 24 & 25) and Rautavaara’s Before the Icons (December 13).

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has been in operation for longer than any other professional orchestra in the Nordic countries. An exhibition devoted to its 125-year history will be held in the foyer of Helsinki City Hall from October 3 to 31 (weekdays 9 am – 4 pm). Admission to the exhibition is free.

The orchestra’s past and present are brilliantly combined in a jubilee documentary A Cinematic Poem for Orchestra directed by Pekka Hako. After the premiere screening on October 2 it will be shown at the Kino Engel from October 4 to 30, at 11 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 3 pm on Sundays. The City Museum’s Kino Engel is at Sofiankatu 4.

Pictures from Finland, the 125th anniversary disc of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for Ondine, is devoted to Finnish music. Among the items included are Sibelius’s Spring Song and Valse triste, Toivo Kuula’s Wedding March and Oskar Merikanto’s Valse lente. The music is beautifully matched by superb Finnish landscape photos by Tapio Heikkilä. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Leif Segerstam.

As part of the 90th anniversary celebrations of the independent Republic of Finland and the Helsinki Days in St. Petersburg the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will be giving a concert conducted by Leif Segerstam at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic on November 13. It will thus also be paying tribute to the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra likewise celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.

Jean Sibelius is particularly famous not only for his symphonies but also for his impressive songs. The interpretations by soprano Soile Isokoski, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Leif Segerstam have all the makings of a classic.

The main work on the disc is the tone poem Luonnotar. Completed in 1913, it is scored for soprano and orchestra and the text is based on the tales of the creation of heaven and earth in the national epic, the Kalevala. Also on the disc are eighteen other songs with orchestral accompaniment, including all but one of those orchestrated by Sibelius himself. One of the orchestrators of the others was Sibelius’s son-in-law, Jussi Jalas.

International reviews of 2006:

Jean Sibelius could focus in seconds a mood or and atmosphere that lesser mortals struggled to capture in an hour. This superbly engineered recital of Sibelius’s orchestral songs provides the evidence and the Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski has the ideal voice for the job, startlingly bright within a sombre and often dramatic orchestral setting. These works benefit from the finely tensed playing of the Helsinki Philharmonic under Leif
Segerstam. Fabulous.
Rob Cowan / The Independent 24.4.2006

Soile Isokoski has never made a more beautiful recording than this. She offers what must be accounted, hands down, as the finest performance of the tone poem Luonnotar currently available. Throughout this program, Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic are equally outstanding... If you haven’t encountered this music, you can’t do better than to acquire this disc without delay... A marvelous release in every respect.
David Hurwitz / Classicstoday.com 1.5.2006

Soile Isokoski has arguably the most beautiful voice of her type, excelling in Mozart and Richard Strauss. Here, she sets down her equally glowing credentials as a Sibelian. Isokoski is an ideal exponent here, singing in Swedish and her native Finnish with exemplary clarity.
Hugh Canning / The Sunday Times 7.5.2006

Now the Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski has produced this glorious disc of 18 songs, together with the hauntingly austere, Kalevala-inspired Luonnotar. They are sung by Isokoski with a potent mix of tenderness and passion, a richness of voice and subtle dynamic inflections, with soaring lines beautifully floated and tailored. Newcomers to Sibelius’s songs could find no more persuasive introduction: aficionados will be entranced.
Geoffrey Norris / Daily Telegraph 13.5.2006

Soile Isokoski conveys the mystical ecstasy of this music with wonderfully pure tone, supported by a totally idiomatic accompaniment conducted by Leif Segerstam.
Sunday Telegraph 14.5.2006

It is hard to imagine a more accomplished interpreter than Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski, here in her natural element, both vocally and spiritually, with the Helsinki Philharmonic under Leif Segerstam.
Anthony Holden / The Observer 21.5.2006
  

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) has awarded the recording of Aulis Sallinen's opera Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France) as 'The Recording of the Year 2006'.

Soloists of the recording include singers Tommi Hakala (baritone), Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo-soprano) and Jyrki Anttila (tenor). The Finnish Philharmonic Choir, Tapiola Chamber Choir and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra are conducted by Okko Kamu, conductor related to many Sallinen recordings. Kamu also conducted the world premiere of the work at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 1984. The CD is produced by Ondine.

The awarded recording was selected among 91 entries produced in Finland or presenting Finnish creative or interpretative art music. The award was grounded in 1971, and it is awarded annually to the performers and producers of recordings.

The disc by soprano Soile Isokoski and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam (Ondine ODE 1080-5) of orchestral songs by Sibelius has won one of the most prestigious classical music honours on being selected Disc of the Year 2007 by the BBC Music Magazine.

An expert jury first selected 18 finalists, three in each of the six categories, out of a total of 1,500 discs. The winners were then chosen by readers of the BBC Music Magazine and listeners to BBC Radio 3. The Luonnotar disc released by Ondine was the winner of the vocal category. The winners of each category then competed for the overall title of Disc of the Year, the final decision being made by the nine-member expert jury.

The BBC Music Magazine is the world’s most widely-read classical music magazine and the BBC Music Magazine Awards are among the most coveted and prestigious honours in the world for classical music discs. The award ceremony was held in London after Easter. Both Soile Isokoski and conductor Leif Segerstam were present to receive the prize in person.

The award-winning disc contains Luonnotar and other orchestral songs by Jean Sibelius, such as Säv, säv, susa, Var det en dröm and Illalle. In January this year this same disc won the MIDEM Classical Award 2007 in Cannes. 

The 49th foreign tour of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra on May 9-19 took in eight concerts in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany. Wielding the baton was the HPO’s Chief Conductor Leif Segerstam and the alternating soloists were top international violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Baiba Skride in the concertos by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius and the violin concerto no. 1 by Szymanowski. The opening numbers were Rautavaara’s Cantus arcticus and Sibelius’s Karelia Suite.

The guest concerts by the HPO were given in challenging international gala and festival series and in such “tough” company as the New York Philharmonic in Vienna. The tour attracted a total audience of 12,500 and 90 per cent of the tickets were on average sold.

The tour ended on May 18 with a sold-out, broadcast concert from the Semper Opera at the 30th Dresden Music Festival. The audience gave the orchestra a standing ovation and demanded three encores. The HPO in fact played encores at all its tour concerts, and two in Hamburg as its way of thanking the enthusiastic audience.

The following are excerpts from some of the press reviews.

ROSENHEIM:
Oberbayerisches Volksblatt 14.5.2007 / Klaus-Jörg Schönmetzler
How to spin gold from straw
At last a world-class orchestra in this so far listless series! The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra began with a supreme example of contemporary Finnish music, the Cantus Arcticus composed by Einojuhani Rautavaara in 1972. From the very first bars it was clear to the audience that the players in this orchestra are not just good craftsmen; they are artists (and there is a considerable difference). … Leif Segerstam has a magical ability to spin pure orchestral gold out of dull, trifling music [the Alla Marcia from the Karelia Suite]. There is nothing to beat Segerstam and his magnificent Finnish musicians.

HANOVER:
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung 14.5.2007 / Stefan Arndt
The Hanover concert confirmed all our preconceived ideas about the land of Pisa winners. The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra has, for example, more women players than in all the top German orchestras put together. … Leif Segerstam is an inspiring conductor – and a great simplifier. Conducted by him, the Brahms third symphony with all its syncopations and tricky rhythms sounds clear and natural. It is not a musical escapade; it is a pleasure for musicians and audience alike.

Neue Presse 14.5. / Günter Heiss
The conductor…and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra proved to a packed Kuppelsaal that the far north is anything but cold…
Following a tempestuous opening and a slightly loud horn passage, Segerstam let Brahms’s third symphony freely flow – the transitions were soft, the timbres plastically beautiful and the whole work sounded translucently clear. The musicians reacted with the utmost sensitivity to Segerstam’s weathervane-like conducting that was nevertheless not without delicate nuancing. The slow sections were hazily soft, the cello tone was like a warm bath and the sound of the French horns simply melted in the ears.

Cellesche Zeitung 19.5.2007 / Jörg Worat
The beginning of the concert was quite unusual. Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Cantus arcticus is a concerto for orchestra and taped birdsong; from time to time the birds even twitter to themselves, without any orchestral accompaniment. The work is not a joke; it is far from that when performed as organically and in so many layers as the Helsinki-ites did, with a certain Nordic seriousness but in a natural, heart-warming way. Segerstam, himself a keen composer, seemed rather to watch over the flow of events without wishing to issue commands from the podium, which suits the work extremely well. Christian Tetzlaff performed the difficult violin concerto by Karol Szymanowski with infinite skill and passion but without giving way to sentiment and with the sensitive support of the orchestra.

HAMBURG:
Die Welt 17.5.2007 / HP
Leif Segerstam…conducted Brahms’s third symphony with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the best Nordic orchestras as his instrument. When Brahms died in 1897, the Helsinki Philharmonic was only 15 years old. The orchestra that once premiered works by Jean Sibelius has preserved to this very day its fine sound culture and constant sense of enjoying what it plays. Even the most delicate phrase is marked out in its playing. Resolution is possibly the word that best describes the commitment of each individual player.

Hamburger Abendblatt 18.5.2007 / Stä
Right at the beginning the soft, warm tone of the French horns. The Ballad introduces the full, velvety strings and the March confirms the solemnly imposing yet moderately applied sound of the brass section. The artistic policy of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra was well revealed in the very first work in the concert, the Karelia Suite by Sibelius. … Under Leif Segerstam…the unashamedly romantic Tchaikovsky violin concerto acquired a robust Nordic tone; this was an excellent foundation for the sensationally fine performance by the soloist, Christian Tetzlaff.

The highly expressive performance of Brahms’s third symphony, sizzling beneath the surface, likewise captivated the audience. The sturdy, boisterous exposition of the main theme already hinted that Segerstam’s would be no routine interpretation.

In their two encores the mighty maestro and his orchestra returned to the soundscape of Sibelius. The Nordic soul sounds most typical in his music…This is how the Finns sound! As they stare out into the black rainy night, a glass of vodka in their grasp. Wonderful!

DRESDEN:
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden / Semperoper 18.5.2007
Festival begins with breath-taking concert
The fantastic opening concert of this year’s Dresden Music Festival will go down in the annals as an unbelievably impressive event. In its concert [the Helsinki Philharmonic] Orchestra supplied two diamonds from its treasure trove of Finnish music. In the concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara for birds and orchestra two flutes circle each other as they rise from the marsh. … The strings’ entry after the taped crying of gulls literally made me catch my breath for a moment. It is inconceivable how the Finnish musicians can succeed in expanding the neoromantic webs of timbre with such melancholy without for a moment sounding sugary.

Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten 21.5.2007
Superb moments in the company of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
If all the concerts in the Dresden Music Festival generate a similar gala feeling, General Manager Hartmut Haenchen will be a satisfied man. For the opening concert of the festival, the guest concert by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under Chief Conductor Leif Segerstam, had the audience totally in raptures. The concert was at the same time the last one in the orchestra’s European tour, and it was obvious from the very outset that the orchestra wanted to give only its best in Dresden’s magnificent opera house.

The performance by Christian Tetzlaff of the first violin concerto by Karol Szymanowski ensured that if it had not done so already the concert would linger in the memory as one of the finest experiences of the classical music year. From the first bar to the last, Tetzlaff immersed himself in the work with a magical intensity; he played so unconditionally that one at times feared the fate of his violin strings. The orchestra supported Tetzlaff’s consummate interpretation with its focused playing and numerous colourful highlights.

The last part of the concert was devoted to music by Jean Sibelius and Leif Segerstam. The orchestra gave a magnificent performance of Sibelius’s first symphony. Segerstam’s conducting is a fitting mixture of impulsive music-making and precise bursts of sound and he led the orchestra to a supreme performance. Sibelius was also the composer of the encores. Finlandia, the Valse triste and the Karelia Suite induced a standing ovation for a fine conductor and his orchestra.

• Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in 130th jubilee concert
  
  
• HPO General Manager Elina Siltanen to take up new City post
  
  
• 130 YEARS OF THE HELSINKI PHILHARMONIC
  
  
• AUTUMN SEASON 2012
  
  
• AUTUMN SEASON 2011 BEGINS NEW MUSIC CENTRE ERA FOR THE HELSINKI PHILHARMONIC
  
  
• Last HPO season at Finlandia Hall
  
  
• In its spring 2010 season the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra will be celebrating Schumann and Mahler, putting on some large-scale vocal productions and exploring the landscape of Walton.
  
  
• HPO’S AUTUMN SEASON BRINGS NEW INTERNATIONAL WORKS AND A BRAHMS SERIES WITH CHIEF CONDUCTOR JOHN STORGÅRDS
  
  
• Spring season features new HPO soloists from the international arenas
  
  
• Prestigious French Diapason d’Or for HPO-YL Kullervo
  
  
• Einojuhani Rautavaara at 80 – over 50 years together with the HPO
  
  
• 125 years of perfect philharmony in Helsinki
  
  
• Principal Guest Conductor becomes Chief Conductor John Storgårds takes over as Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra’s 12th Chief Conductor in autumn 2008
  
  
• COLOURFUL CAVALCADE OF BIRTHDAY COMPOSERS AND BIG CHOIRS IN THE HPO’S AUTUMN SEASON
  
  
• Triumphant HPO 125th anniversary tour of Central Europe attracts audience of 12,500
  
  
• MIDEM Classical Music Award 2007 in Vocal Recitals category: Soile Isokoski and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Leif Segerstam
  
  
• HPO tour to Germany April 22-26
  
  
• 125 philharmonious years: The Helsinki Philharmonic anniversary in photos and music
  
  
• Sibelius disc by Soile Isokoski and HPO wins BBC Music Magazine’s Disc of the Year Award 2007
  
  
•  The King Goes Forth to France –  'The Recording of the Year 2006' in Finland
  
  

The oldest existing symphony orchestra in the Nordic countries, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated its 130-year history with a concert and gala ball on Friday, 9 November. The proceeds of the night go to supporting the remarkable aid work done by Women's Bank in developing countries.

The concert, held at the orchestra's home base the Helsinki Music Centre, was conducted by Chief Conductor John Storgårds. The concert was opened with Symphony no. 5 by Ludwig van Beethoven, the same work that opened the orchestra's debut concert at the University of Helsinki's main auditorium and festival hall on 3 October 1882. The debut concert was conducted by the founder of the orchestra, Conductor-composer Robert Kajanus, then 25 years old.

The 130th anniversary concert was completed with the symphonic poem Aino by Kajanus (for male choir and orchestra, 1885). The concert was followed by a gala ball.

Women's Bank is a community and fund that supports women's sustainable entrepreneurship and livelihood in developing countries, founded in May 2007 by Finn Church Aid and a group of influential women.