Turku Music Festival brings music to Fuuga year-round – autumn programme features young local talent and classical masterworks

The Turku Music Festival is known for its August festival weeks, which spread across the city of Turku. Going forward, the Festival’s concerts will also be held at Fuuga throughout the year. The autumn programme features young Turku-born composers, free concerts featuring rare instruments, and beloved Christmas concert traditions.

Established in 1960 and held continuously ever since, the Turku Music Festival is one of Finland’s oldest festivals. The new Fuuga Concert Hall brings a new year-round dimension to the Festival’s activities: the Turku Music Festival is one of Fuuga’s key partners and will present concerts at the venue outside the August festival weeks as well.

At Fuuga, the Festival aims to bring together young emerging artists, local talent and open-minded musical encounters – while keeping traditions alive. The programme creates opportunities for different musical styles and generations to meet, building on the Turku Music Festival’s long tradition while opening a new chapter in the Festival’s activities.

“For us, year-round activities are above all an opportunity to connect with the people of Turku through the arts. We plan concerts, but we also see it as our responsibility to open doors to different worlds, make space for new artists and create opportunities to experience music free of charge. We want more and more people to find something for themselves at Fuuga and to feel that it is a place that belongs to them.

Fuuga comes alive through what we all bring to it together: artists, audiences and the different people and organisations working in the building. Together, we are creating something unique. I hope Fuuga will become a beautiful, light-filled place where music opens up new perspectives and people find a connection with one another,” says Jussi Merikanto, CEO of the Turku Music Festival.

The Turku Music Festival has brought an exceptionally broad programme to Fuuga for its first autumn. The programme already offers a concrete glimpse of the kind of content the Festival wants to present at Fuuga.

One of the most intriguing concerts of the autumn is From Stardust to Human on 30 October, bringing together young-generation composers Alma Meretoja and Kuura Klaavu, both of whom studied at the Turku Conservatory. Both are at an exciting stage in their artistic careers, and their music represents an ambitious and open-minded new generation of composers. With the concert, the Turku Music Festival highlights young local talent and creates space for new directions in contemporary composition.

Alongside new music, Fuuga will also offer audiences the opportunity to experience classical musical traditions and well-known works. On 18 December, the Main Hall will present one of the best-known masterpieces of Baroque music, Antonio Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans. The programme also includes the traditional Christmas concert by YL Male Voice Choir on 20 December.

Turku Music Festival is also bringing to Fuuga a programme in which different musical styles, art forms and artists meet in open-minded ways. Acclaimed violinist Pekka Kuusisto and American musician Gabriel Kahane bring their Council collaboration to Fuuga. Meanwhile, the quickly sold-out Robin, Iiro & Atte Trio brings together Turku’s own Robin Packalen, jazz pianist Iiro Rantala and ballet dancer Atte Kilpinen. Their very different backgrounds create an entirely new kind of concert experience.

At the end of November, on 29 November, the Immeasurably Precious series presents two concerts featuring musicians who play valuable instruments from the collections of the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Norway’s Dextra Musica. The free concerts are intended to lower the threshold for attending concerts and welcome new audiences, so that as many people as possible can feel that Fuuga is a place that belongs to them.

Going forward, Fuuga will host 6–10 Turku Music Festival concerts each year throughout the year. The first major highlight of next year’s programme will already take place on May Day Eve, with the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Europakonzert, whose arrival in Turku is an event of national significance. More Fuuga concerts for next year will be announced in stages towards the end of the year and during the coming spring.

Alma Meretoja & Kuura Klaavu: From Stardust to Human, 30 October at 5:00 PM, Atelier Hall

Pekka Kuusisto & Gabriel Kahane: Council, 3 November at 6:00 PM, Atelier Hall (sold out)

Red Nose Company: Voces – Intimate Voices, 17 November at 6:00 PM, Atelier Hall (sold out)

Robin, Iiro & Atte Trio, 22 November at 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM, Concert Hall (sold out)

Immeasurably Precious – From Folk Songs to Courtly Dance, 29 November at 2:00 PM, Concert Hall

Immeasurably Precious – The Primordial Power of Music, 29 November at 5:00 PM, Concert Hall

Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans, 18 December at 6:00 PM, Concert Hall

YL Male Voice Choir’s Christmas Concert, 20 December at 6:00 PM, Concert Hall

Read more about the concerts and buy tickets at tmj.fi.

Heli Koskinen
Sales and Marketing Manager, Turku Music Festival
heli.koskinen@tmj.fi
+358 (0)40 820 3205