The post of festival director for the Korsholm Music Festival was made vacant earlier this spring due to the departure of current director Monica Johnson in October. Johnson has been the festival director of Korsholm Music Festival for 14 years.

The interest in the assignment was great and the standard was high. Master of Economic Sciences Milla Virta was selected for the position. Virta has extensive and diverse experience in the cultural sector and especially in music. She currently works as the general manager of the Seinäjoki City Orchestra. Virta starts as festival director for the Korsholm Music Festival on the 1st of October 2022.

Korsholm Music Festival has appointed cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson as the new artistic director. He will continue after violinist Cecilia Zilliacus, whose five-year period at Korsholm Music Festival ends with the 2022 festival. Gustafsson starts his work as the artistic director for the Korsholm Music Festival on the 1st of October 2022. 

Jan-Erik Gustafsson is currently one of the world’s most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians. He began his studies with Markku Luolajan-Mikkola at the West Helsinki Music Institute and studied further with Mikhail Homitser and Frans Helmerson at the Edberg-Musikinstitut in Stockholm, completing his soloist diploma examination in 1992.  
Gustafsson placed well in the 1986 EBU Young Musician competition in Copenhagen, and since then has performed worldwide both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He has appeared with countless distinguished orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Bournemouth SO, the Berlin RSO, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Hobart Symphony Orchestra in Australia, the Netherlands RSO, the Danish RSO, the Swedish RSO and the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Jerusalem SO, the Washington National SO, the New York and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, Camerata Bern and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. Furthermore, he has appeared with nearly all Finnish orchestras.  
Jan-Erik Gustafsson has made several recordings for Ondine, claiming world-wide critical acclaim and praise for his interpretations. His disc featuring Cello Sonatas by Szymanowski, Kodály and Schnittke (ODE 827-2) was nominated Record of the Year in 1994 and his Englund Cello Concerto disc (ODE 951-2) was nominated Record of the Year 2000, both by the Finnish IFPI. Jan-Erik Gustafsson has given numerous masterclasses in Europe, USA and Asia. He was the artistic director of the Loviisa Sibelius Festival in Finland in 1996–2019. He currently plays on a Stefano Scarampella from 1890. 

This year, we will not be distributing flowers to artists after the concerts. Instead, we will protect the old-growth forests by donating to the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation. We would also like to invite artists and the public to protect the Finnish forests with us.

Read more about the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation.

Finland Ukraine Ostrobotniia Kalyna is an association founded to help those in need in the shadows of the war in Ukraine. They help with transportation of emergency materials, medicines, as well as transporting refugees to Ostrobothnia in Finland. The association's domicile is Vörå municipality. 

Korsholm Music Festival is helping the victims of war in Ukraine. In addition to donating supplies, the Music Festival will also provide concert experiences to those who are interested. 
We hope you will join the effort through a voluntary donation to their account or at the concerts at the ticket sales in the entrées. 
 

Finland Ukraina Ostrobotniia Kalyna rf. ry. 

FI27 3131 1002 3862 11 

Message : KALYNA 

License number: RA/2022/828 

Korsholm Music Festival turns 40 this year! To celebrate this, we want to give a birthday gift to you born in the year 1982.

So, if this is the year where you turn 40 years old, we offer you one free ticket to a concert of your choice during the festival week 27.7.–4.8. or to the early start on 27th of July!

Get your free ticket from our festival office or contact us via email info@korsholmmusicfestival.fi. Don’t forget your ID!

We would love to celebrate your birthday together at this summer's festival! To see the concert program, click here.

Do you remember the first time you visited Korsholm Music Festival? Do you have a special musical moment or a wonderful concert excursion that has stayed with you? Or do you visit the lyrical late-night concert at the Orthodox Church every year? Please tell us! 
 
This year Korsholm Music Festival is 40 years old, and we would like to celebrate it with the public, our artists, employees and partners.  
 
We hope that you can share memories from your years with the Korsholm Music Festival, as well as greetings and wishes for the coming festivals. You can send a message here. We will publish the greetings, memories and other thoughts on our new notice board.  
 
We hope to hear from you soon – and to see you at this summer’s concerts! 

Every year at Korsholm Music Festival, we hire employees to work in many positions, for example as concert masters, roadies, kitchen staff and chauffeurs, during the festival. The work tasks are varied and include customer service, hosting, arranging concert places and assisting performing artists, among other things. 
 
The festival employees receive a stipend and a free lunch during work days. They get a festival pass, which they can use to go to concerts for free. 
 
An info and training day for festival employees will be held on the 23nd of July. The work begins on the 25th of July and continues for the duration of the festival 27.7.–4.8. Driving license and interest in music count as merits. Work languages are Finnish, Swedish and English. 
 
If you want to work at a high-level festival for classical music and at the same time enjoy the unique festival feeling in the archipelago, send a letter of motivation before 1st of June to info@korsholmmusicfestival.fi. Write “Festival employee” as the headline. 

Thanks to the good Corona situation in Finland, this year Korsholm Music Festival can be arranged without restrictions.

We continue to take extra measures to ensure that your concert visit is safe and secure.

Before the concert:
Contact surfaces and door handles are disinfected before and during the concert according to the authorities' instructions. We will have programmes for sale before the concerts, and we recommend you card payments.

When you come to Korsholm Music Festival's concert halls 2022:
- Stay at home if you feel sick, have short of breath or cough
- Wait to be admitted to the hall, queue from a distance, do not rush!
- Remember hand hygiene, use hand disinfection - it is in place!
- We recommend you to wear a mask. Masks are sold before concerts at the concert venues.
- If you cough, do it in a disposable handkerchief or in the armpit!

Summer is close at hand and so is the Korsholm Music Festival!

The programme is published for the summer and you can purchase your tickets here. Come and experience the festival with us! 

Next summer the Korsholm Music Festival will host Minna Leinonen, who is the theme composer of the year. In her work, Leinonen is inspired by everyday objects, folkloristics, and Finnish nature, among other things. Leinonen will be in Vaasa during the festival and in addition to her work, we will get to hear her thoughts of music and composing at one “after lunch”- discussion at Restaurant Loftet.

During this summer´s festival, we will listen to many pieces of music from Leinonen. Their themes and impulses well up from visual arts, nature, and literature. Her music brings views and perspectives to both contemporary music and this year’s festival theme, “Chanting Forests”.

For the jubilee year, The Korsholm Music Festival has commissioned a new piece from Leinonen that she is working on at present. A new piano quintet will be world premiered at the festival´s jubilee concert on the 31st of July, and it will be performed by the festival’s prior artistic directors.

We’re looking forward to the new, no doubt fantastic piano quintet but most of all, to Minna Leinonen’s visit to the festival. While waiting for the summer you can learn more about Minna Leinonen at her website www.minnaleinonen.com.

Ticket sale to our summer concerts begins today 24.2. at 12.00 and the entire concert programme is now published on our website! 

Book your tickets now: www.netticket.fi

Korsholm Music Festival celebrates its 40th jubilee year! The festival is held annually in July/August, 27.7.–4.8.2022.

B.A. Anni Mäkelä from Jyväskylä has been appointed as the new producer / information manager for the festival. Her specialty is Finnish language as well as motivation and interest in art and cultural events. She has prior experience as assistant producer, and she has also written texts for the festival’s programme book and social media accounts. We welcome her to the jubilee year’s team of workers.

Stundars Museum site, is a concert site and the place where the festival was founded 1983.

We see you in Stundars next summer!

After the annual meeting 2.12. the festival association´s members can join the concert with Vaasa City Orchestra. Conductor and soloist: Simon Crawford Phillips.

 https://www.vaasa.fi/en/see-and-experience/culture-in-vaasa-and-vaasa-region/vasa-city-orchestra/taken-by-the-rhythm/

Korsholm Music Festival celebrates it´s 40 chamber music year in 2022 and the festival is arranged 27.7–4.8.2022. The theme will according to the Artistic Director Cecilia Zilliacus be about the nature. Insects were in focus summer 2021. Next year will be about trees and woods. Cecilia Zilliacus has also invited previous Artistic Directors to patricipate in the festival next summer. It also seems that most of them can arrive. Regarding the name for the theme next year it will be announced at he yearly meeting of the association 2.12.2022. Then also parts of the programme 2022 will be published. 

During Korsholm Music Festival the chamber opera "Ringen" (The Ring) had its Finland premiere. The music composed by our composer in residence 2021 Mats Larsson Gothe, the libreto written by director Elisabet Ljungar. The the text had its inspiration from Se

Swedish author Hjalmar Söderberg and his unfinished novel "Ringen och de vises sten". In the melodrama we hear and see Gabriel Suovanen, baritone, and the musicians Cecilia Zilliacus, violin, Kati Raitinen, cello and Vicki Powell, viola. 

The chamber opera was performed in Vaasa  ond the stage in Ritz  4th of August. The opera can be viewed here on the webpage on 25.10 starting at 10.00 and the whole day. 

Watch concert, click here. More information about the opera and the musicians in the programmebook on the front page or on the sam page as the video. 

Concert in cooperation with Vaasa City Orchestra. The orchestra’s autumn season begins with a musical match between Finland and Sweden. Born in Vaasa, Siri Brander was a contemporary of Jean Sibelius and an enlightened animal rights activist. Her short piece Elegy, together with Sibelius’ third symphony, frame the double concerto by Swedish Mats Larsson Gothen, with Sweden’s brightest string stars Cecilia Zilliacus and Torleif Thedéen as the soloists. This is a match where both countries will share the victory!

Vasa stadsorkester
Tomas Djupsjöbacka, dirigent
Cecilia Zilliacus, violin

Torleif Thedéen, cello

Siri Brander (1866-1934): Elegie (1894), (arr. A. E. Westerlind)

Mats Larsson Gothe (1965-): Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra ”Sisyfos drömmar” (2009-10)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): Symphony No. 3 (1907)

Tickets 29 / 25 / 10 €

https://www.netticket.fi/ajattomat-myytit

During the replay week 1 - 8th of September, you can find the concert presentations and the information about all our artists that performed during the summer week. If you want to have your own paperback, you can get this from our office in the City Hall in Vaasa or by emailing us here, info@korsholmmusicfestival.fi.

The main concerts from each day are replayed at 20.00 every night from this page - choose concerts.

Read the trilingual book

This year the festival's composer-in-residence is Mats Larsson Gothe. During the festival week he will host lunch discussions at our festival café Loftet, with various artists joining him for a lively discussion. Come join us for lunch, talks – there will also be a little music!

The first lunch discussion will be held on the first day of the festival, Wednesday 28.7. at 12.30 pm, and Music Festival’s artistic director and violinist Cecilia Zilliacus, conductor Jonathan Stockhammer, soprano Christina Daletska and double bassist Rick Stotijn will join Mats Larsson Gothe for the event.

Other lunch discussions will take place on Friday 30.7, Monday 2.8. and Wednesday 4.8. The discussions will begin at 13.00 pm and before that you can enjoy lunch at Loftet. You will find the events from our concert page as well as our programme book – so you can check which artists will be there and when!

Free entry to all lunch discussions. The lunch can be paid at Loftet.

Unesco's World Heritage Site, Söderfjärden, Vaasa city center… This year we have many interesting excursions in Vaasa and surrounding areas at Korsholm Music Festival. The excursions include concert tickets, many fun activities and something to eat or drink. Read more about our excursions here.

Broken dishes, patches of fabric and pieces of yarn all get a new life at Korsholm Music Festival's recycling themed " Recycled Design" sales counter. Come admire local craftspeople's products and find some souvenirs!

You can come by the sales counter before and after the following concerts:

30.7. at 7 pm. Vaasa City Church, concert No. 9 “Das Lied von der Erde”

1.8. at 7 pm Vaasa City Hall, concert No. 16: "Great Expectations" 

4.8. at 8 pm. Vaasa City Church, concert No. 28 “Waldszenen”

Please Note! We are only releasing 50 seats for each concert now to begin with and we will follow the situation regading how many people in the audience are allowed to the halls in July and August. We will keep you updated on our social media and homepage during the summer.

Buy your tickets here or at the NetTicket booking offices:
www.netticket.fi/korsholm-music-festival
www.netticket.fi/bookingoffices

The concert programme can be found here:
www.korsholmmusicfestival.fi/Program/concerts

Welcome to participate in Master Classes this year!

This summer we organize Master Classes during the festival from 28.7-4.8. Read more and apply here.

Composer in Residence this year is the Swedish composer Mats Larsson Gothe. Larsson Gothe creates expressive and diverse music, which is being played all over the world. He composes music in different genres – symphonies, solo pieces, chamber music, choral and opera. During the Festival, we get to enjoy different parts of his creations and one World Premiere!

Earth Hour is a movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The event is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour. This year the campaign is today 27th of March and Korsholm Music Festival will join this worldwide movement together with the rest of Finland. So tonight at 20.30-21.30 we will turn off our lights and electric gadgets for one hour. 

 Read more about Earth Hour here: https://www.earthhour.org

The Swedish Royal Court gives in the press news that His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav has on the name-day KARL 28th of January 2021 decided a number of medal awards with H.M. Konungens medalj and the medal LITTERIS ET ARTIBUS. The medal Litteris et Artibus has been granted to composer Mats Larsson Gothe with the motivation of outstanding artistic contributions as a composer.

Korsholm Music Festival sends its warmest gratulations to MLG and wish him most welcome as composer in residence in the summer starting 28th of July!

Korsholm Music Festival was held online this summer between 28.7.-5.8!

Artistic Director Cecilia Zilliacus thinks that a live concert in front of an audience still is the best way of communicating music. Streaming is good in addition to live concerts in the future and especially nice for those who can´t make it to a concert hall. Many musicians this year have missed the interaction with an audience from behind the cameras. Still Zilliacus is happy that Korsholm Musid Festival could be arranged under the circumstances and with such good quality of the concerts.  ”In general the festival has done well, this was planned, when we finally took the decision" says director Johnson. We have learned the secrets of streaming! The personal encounters between audience and musicians is a loss, though. That is what makes the excitement of the festival.     

Next year the festival is arranged 28.7 - 4.8 2021!
Part of the artists that was cancelled this year due to Covid-19, will come next summer. Progressive rock on classical instruments by ORBI- ensemble from the Netherlands and german Signum Quartet will participate. Jazz guitarist Mathias Sandberg from Vasa and the operadivas Pia-Karin Helsing and Christin Högnabbawill be there. The Musethica- organisation of young musicians will participate. As residence composer will be Swedish Mats Larsson Gothe. Another composer participating is the Finnish Sebastian Fagerlund. More information about programme and artists to come during the Autumn.  

This year, our festival is mostly virtual, but fortunateluy the Corona situation in Ostrobothnia and Finland is under control and we are able to invite a limited amount of audience to our concerts. The number of people allowed at the different concert sites varies from 20 seats to a couple of hundred. We still ask the audience to note that the concerts are filmed with a fairly large apparatus and several cameras and this can affect the visibility and make it difficult to concentrate on the music.

If you want to guarantee your seat at the concerts, please book at info@korsholmmusicfestival.fi or by calling us on 040 833 2022. We have no tickets for the concerts, except for Laihia Church, where tickets cost 20 € and are for sale via www.netticket.fi. Programmes are for sale at each concert for 10 €.

Note! Check out our info regarding Corona security at our concerts here.

We allow a limited amount of seats for the following concerts:

28.7. Evening Music - Appassionata
29.7. Opening Concert - Note! No more seats left!

30.7. Finnish violin music from the 20s
31.7 Young musicians & Back to the twenties! 

1.8. Beethoven & the twenties!

2.8. Young musicians

3.8. Total Chamber Music Mania!

4.8. The magic of cello

5.8. Closing Concert

The tickets for the concert in Laihia Church are now for sale at www.netticket.fi/sellon-taikaa! Laihia Church has wide walls and great acoustics, so it is a perfect place to invite the audience to hear live music in a live concert space. On Tuesday evening, Total Cello Ensemble, a chamber music ensemble founded at the Sibelius Academy by six top cellists, are performing at Laihela Church. The programme include everything from classic gems by Arvo Pärt to South American rhythms by Heitor Villa-Lobos. In addition to classical music, we will also get to listen to popular music by Lasse Mårtenson, Unto Mononen, Adele and Metallica (not to mention that Hannu Kiiski was a teacher of Apocalyptica’s Eicca Toppinen at the Sibelius Academy). You don’t have to go far to experience the summer’s hottest and most cultivating show!

This year we are live streaming seven concerts from Vaasa and Korsholm, three from Stockholm, Sweden and four concerts will be held live with a restricted audience limit. The links for the live streams will be published on our homepage and in our social media during the festivalweek. For the concerts with an audience, we are following the estrictions and recommendations given by the authorities. More information about the arrangements will be published on our website shortly.

Korsholm Music Festival 2020 will be a bit different, but is not completely cancelled. The festival will be live streaming some concerts. From 1.8. some concerts will be performed live and in front of an audience, if the recommendations from the government allow so. The musicians and the audience health is the highest priority to us. We will keep you updated on our homepage and on our social media. 

The concert In company with the Archduke will be streamed live from Stockholm 15.4. at 19.00 finnish time.
The link to the live stream will later be updated on our Facebook page, Instagram and hompage.

In company with the Archduke
Wed 15.4 at 19.00 

Amanda trio
Cecilia Zilliacus, violin
Kati Raitinen, cello
Bengt Forsberg, piano
Miriam Forsberg, recitation 

Marcelle de Manziarly: Pianotrio (1921
Lera Auerbach: ”Lonely Suite” Ballet for a lonely violinist for soloviolin (2002)
Anna Clyne: ”Rest These Hands” for solo cello (2010)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano trio, Op. 97, The Archduke  (1810 -1811)

LINK: updating

According to the information we have now about the Covid-19 virus, Korsholm Music Festival will be held as planned 27.7.-5.8.2020. The concert 15.4. "In company with the Archduke" will be cancelled. The arrangements for the summer festival will continue as planned for the time being. We continue to follow the directions given by the authorities and will update on our social media if changes occur. Take care of yourselves and others!

Ticket release to all of our concerts today 18.2. at 12.00 and the entire concert programme is now published on our website. 

Buy your tickets here!

Broschyren och programmet för sommaren. Biljettförsäljningen pågår!

Klicka här för att öppna broschyren.

Henri Sigfridsson is the soloist in Vaasa City Orchestra's concert on thursday. Henri has made his career internationally as a pianist as well as been the Artistic Director of Korsholm Music Festival. Together with other musicians from Vaasa City Orchestra he invites you to a musical salon.  

Henri Sigfridsson, piano
Erica Nygård, flute
Siri Ilanko, oboe
Eneko Iriarte Velasco, clarinet
Samuli Krohn, bassoon
Vesa Ania, horn
Maano Männi, violin
Viktor Olaus Nygård, viola
Vladimir Reshetko, cello
Pontus Grans, double bass

Jacques Ibert: Trois pièces brèves
Francis Poulenc: Sextet FP100
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Piano Quintet in C minor

Tickets 25/21/10 €

Three different Festival vouchers for the summer 2020 are now for sale at Studio Ticket, Rewell Center in Vasa as well as at the office in Vaasa City Hall! Read more...

Today we have officially begun our ticket sales with Early Bird prices! First up are the chamber concert "In company with the Archduke" 15.4, the Opening Concert 29.7, RItz 4.8 and the Closing Concert 5.8. Now you can buy our concert tickets for christmas gifts! Read more...

The Annual Meeting of Korsholm Music Festival will be held on Thursday 21.11 at 17.00 at Vaasa City Hall's Mirror Hall. We will introduce the results of this year's festival as well as the programme for next year. Our Artistic Director Cecilia Zilliacus will also attend the meeting. After the meeting, we welcome you to attend Vaasa City Orchestra's concert "Phantasma" at 19.00 in the Great Hall. The concert i lead by Mihhail Gerts with soloist Rebecca Roozeman.

If you wish to attend the Annual Meeting and the concert, contact us, 18.11 at the latest, to monica.johnson@korsholmmusicfestival.fi.

Korsholm Music Festival is arranged next year from 29.7 - 5.8.2020. The theme next year is still under production, but the programme will include Ludwig van Beethoven and the 1920s. It is his 250 years anniversary and the wild composer of his time will be noticed. Theme composer next year is Swedish composer Mats Larsson Gothe, who in his production has influences of Beethoven. The festival has also together with String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam and West Cork Chamber Music Festival commissioned a new piece for bassoon and string quartet, a bassoon quintet from Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund. 

The program for next summer will be ready in November 2019

Our wonderful friend and professional partner since many years is gone. Heikki Joensuu passed away unexpectedly 22.10.19. Heikki Joensuu worked in our festival since year 1989 with tuning and repairs of our grand pianos and transports. Within Korsholm Music Festival he leaves a big emptiness and we mourn and think of his family. Rest in peace.

In the Bluebird concert in the City Hall, we hear the fairy tale -piece with the same name after Zacharias Topelius book and classical finnish pieces: 

Erkki Melartin: Sleeping Beauty: The Festivity March & Valse of the Schmetterling
Armas Järnefelt: Praeludium, Berceuse & Ynglingadådet from the movie: sången om den eldröda blomman. 
Jean Sibelius: Valse triste & Andante festivo

The start of the festival is getting closer and we are prepared with new products for our festival audience. We are happy to tell that we have just received stylish and practical, reusable water bottles for 8€ as well as t-shirts for the soon world premiering church opera Pictures of Life (10€). Additionally we have our artists’ CDs, LPs, the book “Dining with Sibelius” among others. You find us at our festival office in Culturum (Koulukatu 31), where you can have a look at our products as well as get your tickets for concerts, the program book and the opera’s libretto – Welcome!

Become a member now and take advantage of all member benefits this coming summer during the Festival! Read more about the member benefits and become a member here.

The Chairman of Korsholm Music Festival, Bo Kronqvist has passed away after a short-term illness. He was 70 years old. He will always be remembered as the energetic and creative person he was and who always was working to bring the culture and chamber music to everyone. He will be greately missed. Rest in peace.

Picture: Rewell Center 25.7.2018 Opening flash, together with the singer Lena Willemark and violinist Cecilia Zilliacus. Photographer: Johan Hagström

The rehearsals for the Church Opera Elämänkuvat are being held in Vaasa City Hall 2-3.5. Attending are composer Olli Kortekangas. Vasa and Seinäjoki City Orchestras, conductor Anna-Maria Helsing and cembalist Petteri Pitko. The rehearsals begun yesterday morning with both orchestras and in the evening they continued with the choirs. Today 3.5. soloist Waltteri Torikka arrived and he will attend rehearsals today and tonight later together with the orchestras and choirs.