This year’s artistic planner, Edition Peters composer Sebastian Fagerlund, created a marvelous program for the Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival 2025 in Porvoo, Finland. From June 25 to June 29 concerts, panel discussions and club concerts revolve around the theme ‘Light in Light’ and feature music by classical composers, such as Beethoven, Ravel or Lutosławski, but also contemporary music by Wise Music composers Kaija Saariaho, Outi Tarkiainen, Daníel Bjarnason and of course Sebastian Fagerlund.

June 25 – Summer Music Fanfare & Opening Concert

Sebastian Fagerlund’s Cadenza will open the festival with a fanfare on Porvoo Town Hall Square which will be performed by clarinetist Christoffer Sundqvist and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. In the evening the official opening concert features performances of Kaija Saariaho’s Forty Heartbeats, Outi Tarkiainen’s Polar Pearls and Sebastian Fagerlund’s Chamber Symphony.

June 26 & 28 – New production of chamber opera Émilie by Kaija Saariaho

Director Aleksi Barrière created a new production of Kaija Saariaho’s chamber opera Émilie which will be presented on June 26 & 28 by Chamber Orchestra Avanti, Pia Freund & Meeri Pulakka (soprano), Sanni Antikainen (harpsichord) and Ada Freund & Janne Marja-aho (choreography and dance). With a libretto by Amin Maalouf, Émilie tells the story of the last days of French scientist Émilie du Châtelet for whom Saariaho had a great fascination.

June 27 – Chamber music concert ‘Reflections’ features Bjarnason & Fagerlund

Daniel Bjarnason’s string quartet Stillshot and Sebastian Fagerlund’s Octet “Autumn Equinox” are performed next to works by Olivier Messiaen and Caroline Shaw. For Fagerlund, those works are connected by the fact, that they have one thing in common:

“What all the works in the concert have in common is the feeling of stepping into the other side of the mirror and looking at an existing situation or the world from different angles.”

June 29 – Closing concert with Fagerlund’s Clarinet Concerto

The festival’s closing concert will feature the performance of Sebastian Fagerlund’s Clarinet Concerto. Co-commissioners conductor John Storgårds and clarinetist Christoffer Sundqvist present the concerto, which was premiered at Korsholm Music Festival in 2006 who also co-commissioned the piece.

The diverse program is complemented by exciting pre-concert encounters, workshops and club concerts.

For the detailed program and tickets see Avanti!

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