Tampere Vocal Music Festival programme published
This year’s international guest performers at the Tampere Vocal Music Festival are Les Itinérantes from France and Vokalensemblen VoNo from Sweden. Les Itinérantes are the Grand Prix winners in the Contest for Vocal Ensembles at the Festival in 2023, where they charmed the jury and audience alike with their virtuoso singing. Vokalensemblen VoNo brings a production titled Earth Call, inspired by young voices protesting the misuse of natural resources.
The Finnish guest performers this year are vocal ensembles Juurakko and Flok & Friends. Juurakko presents a production titled Suon sylissä [In the bosom of the bog], a collection of wonderful, fun and weird experiences of nature underpinned by scientific observations. Flok, the best ensemble in the amplified category in the Contest for Vocal Ensembles in 2023, appears with guest stars who will be announced later in the spring.
The Festival’s 50th birthday is celebrated with a Grand Sing in the Main Auditorium of Tampere Hall, where everyone is invited to come along and sing with a thousand other singers. The event is led by current Artistic Director Merzi Rajala and nine past Artistic Directors.
The Festival programme further includes an international choral project titled Choirs for Ecocide Law. In a panel discussion at the music department of Tampere’s main library, Metso, the Ecocide Law is discussed by author Anni Kytömäki and MEPs Ville Niinistö and Sirpa Pietikäinen. This is followed by a concert programme devised for this project, performed by multiple choirs and soloists in Pyynikki Hall at the Tampere Conservatory.
The cornerstones of the Festival are, as always, the Chorus Review and the Contest for Vocal Ensembles. These bring dozens of choirs and vocal ensembles from Finland and abroad to Tampere. Both events culminate in a Concluding Concert, where an international jury hands out prizes in the Contest or merit awards in the Chorus Review. The finalists of the Contest for Vocal Ensembles are 12 groups from Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, and Finland. For the Chorus Review, 55 choirs from Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Norway, The United States, and Finland have signed up.
The principal venue of the Festival is Tampere Hall, in addition to which concerts are held in Pyynikki Hall at the Tampere Conservatory, at the Evangelical Free Church, at Tampere G Livelab and at Tavara-asema, a former rail goods depot. The Choir Forum in the foyer of Tampere Hall is, as in previous years, a meeting point for festivalgoers. The Festival programme is rounded out by courses for choir conductors and singers along with a series of free concerts around the city under the banner Feel the Festival!
The ticket sales will start on 5 March, at 14.00.
The Tampere Vocal Music Festival is organised by Tampere Music Festivals, which is part of the Public Cultural Services of the City of Tampere.
