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Front page > Program 2025

Program 2025


Discussion Program:

Where Does Music Live?

TUESDAY JULY 1st at 4.00–6.00 pm
City Hall – Free entrance

Open workshop about the future of contemporary music (event will be held in English).

Event information:

Does music still live in the concert hall – or has it already moved on? Does it reside in a composer’s mind, or in shared creation between artists, spaces, and technologies? Maybe music now lives in field recordings, in video calls, in the attention span of a scrolling thumb. Or maybe it lives in silence, in waiting, in refusal.

Contemporary music today is more than sound – it’s space, body, politics, memory, and friction. We may need to rethink our “fixed ideas” about music’s home: from the lone genius in control, to multi-signature collaborations; from Western paradigms to global hybridities; from static formats to immersive, time-bending experiences.

This workshop invites participants from all backgrounds to reflect together:
Where do you find music most alive today – and where would you want it to live next?

Welcome to discuss, brainstorm and build a vision of where music lives now and where we would like it to live in the future.

In the workshop, we will discuss themes together and work in small groups. Organised in collaboration with the City of Viitasaari, as part of the project “Music of our Time”. The workshop will be led by Vilja Ruokolainen.

The event will be held on Tuesday, July 1st in English and on Thursday, July 3rd in Finnish. You can find the description in Finnish here.

Missä musiikki elää?

THURSDAY JULY 3rd at 4.00–6.00 pm
City Hall – Free entrance

Open workshop about the future of contemporary music in Finland (the event will be held in Finnish).

Event iformation:

A Workshop on the Future of Contemporary Music in Finland

Does music still live in the concert halls – or also in libraries, schools, online spaces, country roads, and municipal cultural strategies?

Is music’s home in the composer’s mind – or in communities, festivals, educators, and civil servants?

This open discussion explores the future of contemporary music from a Finnish perspective. We ask: what kinds of structures and collaborations are needed for music to thrive freely and vibrantly in 2030?

Together we’ll reflect on questions such as:

  • How can a small locality be a vital part of the contemporary music scene?
  • How can young composers and musicians find space and support for their artistic work in Finland?
  • How could festivals, municipalities, schools, and institutions create more together?
  • Can music have a home that is not just a venue, but also a space for growth, encounter, and transformation?

Welcome to share thoughts, co-create ideas, and help shape a vision of where music lives now – and where we’d like it to live in the future.

The event is organised in collaboration with the City of Viitasaari as part of the Music of Our Time project. The discussion is moderated by Vilja Ruokolainen.

The event will be held on Tuesday, July 1st in English and on Thursday, July 3rd in Finnish. You can find the description in Finnish here.

Discussion about collaboration

FRIDAY JULY 4th at 5.00 pm
School centre – Free entrance

Johan Tallgren talks with composers and performers of the festival about collaboration (the event will be held in English).

The Politics of Participation – document and discussion

SUNDAY JULY 6th at 4.30 pm
City Hall – Free entrance

Event iformation

The event will feature a screening of Megan-Leigh Heilig’s documentary film The Politics of Participation, followed by a discussion of the documentary’s themes as part of the Sounds Now project.

Heilig’s film documents the projects and enablers of the Sounds Now project (2019–2024). The essay-style film consists of interviews filmed at contemporary music festivals across Europe that participated in the project.

The film explores the ethics and critical issues of participatory projects, curating diversity, the concept of inclusivity, and transparency in who is on stage and why. Above all, the film is a tribute to the work, voices, and minds that made Sounds Now possible. Featuring Graham McKenzie, Heloisa Amaral, Johan Tallgren, and Esther Ursem, among others.

Johan Tallgren discusses with Claudia Molitor her Listen to My World installation, which was experienced in Viitasaari in 2022 as part of the Sounds Now project, as well as Molitor’s work and the topics raised by the documentary in general.


Concerts

TUESDAY JULY 1st

7.00 PM Opening Concert: Butterfly music

Viitasaari Areena 32/24 €

Ensemble Yarn/Wire:
Laura Barger, piano
Julia den Boer, piano
Russell Greenberg, percussion
Dennis Sullivan, percussion

Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen
Jennifer Torrence
Inga Margrete Aas
Simon Løffler

Lisa Streich: Orchestra of Black Butterflies (2024)

Simon Løffler: Animalia Cycle (2019)

The concert has an intermission.


WEDNESDAY JULY 2nd

6.00 PM Time sketches

Viitasaari Areena 26/20 €

Ensemble Yarn/Wire:
Laura Barger, piano
Julia den Boer, piano
Russell Greenberg, percussion
Dennis Sullivan, pecussion

Rémi Le Tallandier, computer Music design
Serge Lacourt , sound Engineer

Jaime Belmonte: Cinq Regards sur 2024 (2025, Finnish premiere)
Alex Mincek: Images of Duration (2018)

9.00 PM Plans for Future Operas

Theatre 22/16 €

Juliet Fraser, soprano
Mark Knoop, piano

Øyvind Torvund: Plans for Future Operas (2022)


THURSDAY JULY 3rd

7.00 PM Supernova 1945

Viitasaari Areena 26/20 €

Ensemble Saxtronauts:
Anna-Sofia Anttonen, saxophone
Nanna Ikonen, saxophone
Nanako Lammi, saxophone
Sikri Lehko, saxophone

Meriheini Luoto: Talven uneen vaipuen (2024)
Kätköt
Talviunia
Kevät kuohuu ja kohisee

Osmo Tapio Räihälä: Oil Today Water Tomorrow (2024, world premiere)
Nuño Fernández Ezquerra: Plerion (2019)

___

Olli Moilanen: Crisalide (2025, world premiere)
Outi Tarkiainen: There’s more light in this room when you’re here (2018)
Mioko Yokoyama: Tetra-Alloy (2024)

The concert has an intermission.


FRIDAY JULY 4th

6.00 PM Kinds of closeness

Theater 26/20 €

Ensemble Kompopolex: 
Aleksandra Gołaj, percussion, performance
Rafał Łuc, accordion, performance
Jacek Sotomski, electronics, performance
Łukasz Myszyński, electronics

Matthew Shlomowitz: Weird Audio Guide (2011/2020)
Simon Løffler: b (2012)
Rafał Ryterski: Breathe (2021)*
Jacek Sotomski: System Shock (2025)*
Martin Hirsti-Kvam: Memory Box #2 (2023)*
Kelley Sheehan: inefficient sky (2024)*

*Finnish premiere

8.30 PM Leçons de ténèbres – Lessons of Darkness

Viitasaari Areena 26/20 €

Ensemble Saxtronauts:
Anna-Sofia Anttonen, saxophone, electronics *
Nanna Ikonen, saxophone, electronics **
Nanako Lammi, saxophone, electronics
Sikri Lehko, saxophone, electronics

Lauri Supponen: Ave Maris Stella (2020)
I Field Research
II Data processing

Juhani Nuorvala: Kreivin keittiössä, juhannusaamuna (2019) **
I Valoisa valssi
II Tumma valssi
III Intohimo

Perotinus: Viderunt omnes (arr. Nanna Ikonen)

Hildegard Bingeniläinen: O Ignis Spiritus Paracliti (arr. Anna-Sofia Anttonen)

Juhani Nuorvala: Concertino (2004)*

Juhani Nuorvala: Kreivin keittiössä, juhannusaamuna (2019)**
IV Élegié pour Julie

Hildegard Bingeniläinen: Karitas habundat in omnia (arr. Anna-Sofia Anttonen)

Lauri Supponen: Ave Maris StellaIII Diffusion of Results


SATURDAY JULY 5th

3.00 PM Olde School Course Concert 1.

Parish Hall – Free entrance

Pianists of composer Matthew Shlomowitz and pianist Mark Knoop s course pianists premiere pieces by the participating composers and own repertoire in the concert.


5.00 PM Laboratory of Not-knowing Course Concert

Free entrance

The participants of the course taught by Jennifer Torrence and Simon Løffler perform.

Yu-Shiuan Mei
Lorenzo Orsenigo
Charles Quevillon
Jeremy Wei Rosenstock
Niko Schroeder
Oscar Tudge

Tianyi Wang

7.30 PM About Listening

Theatre 26/20 €

Performers:
Matthew Shlomowitz, reader
Anna-Sofia Anttonen, saxophone
Mark Knoop, piano, synthesizer
Claudia Molitor, voice, piano

Matthew Shlomowitz: Lecture about Listening to Music (2017)

Claudia Molitor: Now everything is different (2024)


SUNDAY JULY 6th

2.00 PM Olde Skool Course Concert 2.

Parish Hall – Free entrance

Pianists of composer Matthew Shlomowitz and pianist Mark Knoop s course pianists premiere pieces by the participating composers and own repertoire in the concert.


7.00 PM Call to Action!

Viitasaari Areena 22/16 €

Mirka Viitala, piano
Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)


VENUES

Viitasaari Areena, Urheilutie 9
Theatre, Koulukuja 8
Parish Hall, Pappilantie 6
City hall, Keskitie 10
School Centre, Koulukuja 2

Festival office during the festival: Digikeskus/Lennätin, Keskitie 4


Music Time holds the right to make changes to the festival program, schedules and other arrangements!