Kuopio Symphony Orchestra
Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish: Kuopion kaupunginorkesteri ) is a municipal orchestra based in Kuopio, Finland. The orchestra is resident at Kuopio Music Center (Kuopion Musiikkikeskus), which is well known for its mild acoustics. Consisting of forty-six permanent musicians, it performs 16 symphony concerts and 8 chamber music concerts a year. The orchestra is Region-Based orchestra contributing to local communities through performances in the city ceremonies, family concerts, school concerts and musicals collaborating with Kuopio city theater. It has been active also for overseas tours, including concert tour to Japan, appearance to Dalhalla music festival and Savonlinna Opera Festival.
The orchestra is also known as gateway to success for young conductors. Conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Jarvi, Andris Nelsons, Klaus Mäkelä and so forth are on the name of its historical list. It helds international conducting master class annually by their honorary conductor Jorma Panula. A half of the orchestra members are from outside of Finland. It is a most important factor to have comparably wider range of repertoire than other Finnish orchestras.
History[edit]
The orchestra date back to 1909 before the independence of Finland. Elias Kahra (cello), Adolf Hällström (violin) and Alice Forstén (piano) made a piano trio. This triggered later to form orchestral activities in Kuopio. The next year, Haus Orchestra of 13 musicians was founded. The first conductor was Elias Kahra. Later on that year the Orchestra of the Association of the Music Friends of Kuopio (OAMFK) was founded with 23 members. They held first concert at city hall on December 14. After independence of Finland, the conductor of North-Savo regiment band, Mr. Jalmari Ripatti, gathered orchestra members and form joint orchestra with his regiment band. In 1945, the name of the Orchestra of the Association of the Music Friends of Kuopio was changed into Kuopio Orchestra. In 1963, due to its moving of North-Savo regiment to Kajaani, Kuopio Orchestra lost the members. However, it ignited promotion of reformation to become professional orchestra. The orchestra joined Association of Finnish Symphony Orchestras in 1965 and it got municipalized in 1976. From that time, they named the orchestra as Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Kuopion Kaupunginorkesteri).
The new concert and congress center, the Kuopio Music Centre was inaugurated in 1985 and Kuopio Symphony Orchestra started main activities at the concert hall. The great acoustic concert hall enables the orchestra to have further development. Until the present time, combination of good acoustic and orchestra sound are their strong point.
Conductors(principal conductors and music directors)[edit]
- 1965 - 1993 ： Lauri Siimes, Nicholas Smith (G.B), Pertti Pekkanen, Robert Black (USA)
- 1993 - 2000 ： Atso Almila
- 2000 - 2003 ： Shuntaro Sato (Japan)
- 2003 - 2007 ： Vello Pähn (Estonia)
- 2007 - 2013 ： Sascha Goetzel (Austria)
- 2013 - 2018 ： Alberto Hold Garrido (Danmark)
- 2018 - ：Jaakko Kuusisto
- Honorary conductor: Jorma Panula
- 2nd conductor: Atso Almila
Recent guest conductors and soloists[edit]
Conductors
Soloists
- Olli Mustonen
- Izumi Tateno
- György Pauk
- Peter Donohoe
- Baiba Skride
- Andrea Obiso
- Benjamin Schmid
References[edit]
1. Kalevi Aho, Pekka Jalkanen, Erkki Salmenhaara, Keijo Virtamo "Music of Finland" ISBN951-1-14479-0
2. Kuoion Musiikkikeskus leaflet (self publishing by Kuopion Musiikkikeskus)
3. History of Kuopio Symphony Orchestra
4. Association of Finnish Symphony Orchestras
Kuopio Symphony Orchestra[edit]
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