IEMA Ensemble, NEKO3, Laura Bowler, Hanna Hohti, and other top artists invite you to enjoy the best contemporary music of our time in Viitasaari, Finland, from July 2nd to 7th. Under the theme Games of Participation, the festival offers unique concerts, many of which include theatricality and other performing arts. Now it’s time to head for experiences in summery Central Finland!
Italian-Swiss composer Oscar Bianchi‘s work Orango puts the roles of the audience and the musicians in a new order. In addition to musicians, the performance includes a so-called participating audience, who get to influence the course of the piece. In the New Roles opening concert at Viitasaari Areena on Thursday, July 4th, at 7 p.m., the participating audience consists of students from the Youth Composition Course by Viitasaari Region Music Institute and Time of Music’s summer courses. The program also includes Pendants by this year’s guest composer, the Swedish Jesper Nordin. The IEMA Ensemble (International Ensemble Modern Academy), consisting of top musicians, is conducted by the award-winning Lithuanian conductor Raimonda Skabeikaitė.
Matrix of Modernity by the Finnish composer Walter Sallinen and writer-playwright Klaus Maunuksela is a work that describes human activity in today’s algorithm-dominated world. The piece, composed for four musicians and a sound system of more than 40 speakers, allows the audience to move around the performance space. This summer’s resident ensemble NEKO3 performs the piece together with percussionist Marta Soggetti in Viitasaari Church on Friday, July 5th, at 7 p.m.
In her work Advert, the British composer-vocalist Laura Bowler combines music, multimedia, theatricality, and physical performance art in an exceptional way. In the performance, Bowler herself works as a soloist who not only sings but also performs comprehensively. Advert dives deep into the modern world defined by social media, constant branding, and marketing. Bowler performs the piece together with the German Decoder Ensemble at Viitasaari Areena on Saturday, July 6th, at 7 p.m. This performance is not recommended for people under 16 years of age.
Another top moment on Saturday evening is offered by violist Hanna Hohti and sound engineer Anders Pohjola at Viitasaari Church at 9 p.m. The concert called Seidr is a magical and exciting musical journey to the borderland between reality and unreality. The works of the concert have been inspired by ancient Scandinavian mythology and magic, modern technology, as well as speeches of well-known politicians. The composers of the evening are Tine Surel Lange from Norway, Josephine Opsahl from Denmark, and Perttu Haapanen from Finland, as well as guest composer Jesper Nordin.
The final concert on Sunday, July 7th, features Angel Death Traps by the German composer Alexander Schubert, which, according to the composer, is a “transhuman techno-romantic song cycle.” The entirety consisting of love songs combines artificiality and naturalness – club-like light and performance technology and nature appear constantly contrasted and intertwined. Angel Death Traps is performed by NEKO3 at Viitasaari Areena at 7 p.m.
The festival begins already on Tuesday, July 2nd, with, for example, a jazz concert produced by the city of Viitasaari. Taking place at Lyhty Viitasaari, the summery jazz evening features saxophonist Markku Rinta-Pollari and guitarist Tuomas Paukku, both of whom are actively working in the fields of jazz and rhythm music, especially in Jyväskylä, Finland. The concert, beginning at 7 p.m., is free of charge.
Tickets to Time of Music can be bought at Lippupiste’s outlets and online store. In addition to individual tickets, an affordable festival pass including all the concerts is also for sale. During the festival, tickets can be bought at concert venues one hour before every concert as well as at our festival office (Digikeskus Lennätin, address: Keskitie 4, Viitasaari).
The whole program of the festival can be found here.
You are warmly welcome to Time of Music!
