Avanti! Chamber Orchestra

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Avanti! Chamber Orchestra is a Finnish group that mainly performs contemporary music. It can play with just one musician or with a full symphony orchestra, depending on the piece. The ensemble was founded in 1983 by conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste and flautist Olli Pohjola.

The orchestra is not limited to one style, but it often focuses on new music. One example is HumppAvanti!, a collaboration with Timo Hietala that mixes pop and folk elements. Their first recording won the Gramophone Prize from YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Avanti! frequently works with top Finnish conductors and with internationally renowned soloists and conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Oliver Knussen, Ralf Gothoni, Gidon Kremer and Charles Neidich.

From 1994 to 1998, Anssi Karttunen served as artistic director. Since 1998, Kari Kriikku, a Finnish clarinettist, has held the post and was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2001.

Summer Sounds, Avanti!’s own festival, takes place every summer in Porvoo and has run since 1986. In the early years the festival mixed many ideas and was full of surprises; today it also features a new artistic director each year. Past directors include Barbara Hannigan, Helmut Lachenmann, Oliver Knussen, HK Gruber, Anssi Karttunen, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kari Kriikku, John Storgård, Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, Hannu Lintu, Kaija Saariaho, Kirmo Lintinen, Seppo Kimanen, and others. The festival presents chamber music, orchestral concerts, and events for children with international soloists and conductors. Each year the artistic director invites a foreign guest composer to share their work with the Finnish audience.