Set Designer

Lighting Designer

Jazz was condemned by the art music audience in the early 20th century, but that did not stop composers from being inspired by jazz rhythms and sounds.

EPSG:4326

Bad influences

Espoo Cultural Centre

“At the end of the concert, half the audience clapped their hands, the other half hissed in disapproval. There were even those who hissed and clapped at the same time.”

A soldier's story

It is rare to witness a public execution and the subsequent “dream of a severed head” in a concert, but Hector Berlioz’s Symphony No. 1 does. Of course, it is all fantasy, but reality was more wonderful than fiction. In the symphony, Berlioz murders his love, the English actress Harriet Smithson, but years later married her. Michael Drapkin has reduced the orchestra in his arrangement, but not much emotion. Canadian-Finnish composer Matthew Whittall’s new oboe concerto is tailored for the brilliant oboe principal of the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Anni Haapaniemi. Whittall was inspired by the contrast between light and shadow in his composition, which also served as the starting point for the visual design of the concert.

Hallucination

Music sometimes contains composers' secrets that are not meant for everyone to hear. Shostakovich performs his first cello concerto with his D-Es-CH theme formed from his initials, but in the finale, Stalin begins to taunt him with his favorite tune. Schubert left his B minor symphony unfinished, even though he tried for a long time to come up with a sequel to it. Recent research reveals that the work may have been intentionally "Unfinished". The text written by Schubert around the same time tells of a difficult family crisis, the painful memories of which are reflected in two movements of the symphony. In the Cortége by Sibelius Prize-winning Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the musicians perform a mysterious ritual in front of the audience.

Sleep or Trauma

Mahler's Fifth Symphony is especially remembered for its wonderful Adagietto for strings and harp, which has been heard in Visconti's film Death in Venice, at President Kennedy's funeral and at the commemorations of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For Mahler, the piece was a declaration of love for his new wife Alma, but in the great symphony it is a small respite on the way from the mourning march and storms of the beginning to the optimistic rush of the finale.

Love song

Violinist-director Jan Söderblom and actress Miitta Sorvali explore the possibilities and dimensions of laughter in a classical music concert.

Laughter Festival

The 2025-2026 Indie Series will culminate in the premiere of the Electric Guitar Concerto by the orchestra's artistic partner Marzi Nyman.

Set Designer, Lighting Designer

Joonas Tikkanen

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 12, 2026

Love song · Tapiola Sinffonietta

Mar 5, 2026

Laughter Festival · Tapiola Sinffonietta

Apr 10, 2026

Electricity! · Tapiola Sinffonietta

Past events

Nov 27, 2025

Bad influences · Tapiola Sinffonietta

Nov 13, 2025

A soldier's story · Tapiola Sinffonietta

About

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