Savonlinna Opera Festival
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Savonlinna Opera Festival
Savonlinna Opera Festival ( fi, Savonlinnan oopperajuhlat) is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle), built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacular lake scenery. Origin The birth of the Savonlinna Opera Festival ties in closely with the emerging Finnish identity and striving for independence at the beginning of the 20th century. Attending a nationalist meeting in Olavinlinna Castle in 1907, the Finnish soprano Aino Ackté, already famous at opera houses the world over and an ardent patriot, immediately spotted the potential of the castle as the venue for an opera festival. The first opera festival was held in 1912. Aino Ackté directed the festival for five summers, staging four Finnish operas. The only opera by a non-Finnish composer was Charles Gounod’s ''Faust'', with Ackté herself in the leading female role of Marguerite. In 1917 the festival ran into difficulties because of Fir ...
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Olofsborg Från Sjösidan
Olavinlinna (also known as St. Olaf's Castle; sv, Olofsborg; german: Olafsburg; literally ''Olof's Castle'') is a 15th-century three-tower castle located in Savonlinna, Finland. It is built on an island in the Kyrönsalmi strait that connects the lakes Haukivesi and Pihlajavesi. It is the northernmost medieval stone fortress still standing. The castle forms a spectacular stage for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, held for the first time in the summer 1912. History The fortress was founded by Erik Axelsson Tott in 1475 under the name ''Sankt Olofsborg'' in an effort to profit from the political turmoil following Ivan III's conquest of the Novgorod Republic. It was sited in Savonia so as to lay claim to the Russian side of the border established by the Treaty of Nöteborg. One of Tott's letters from 1477 includes a passing mention of foreign builders invited to Olofsborg, probably from Reval, where the city fortifications were being extended. It was the first Swedish castle pr ...
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Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The first theatre on the site, the Theatre Royal (1732), served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, the first season of operas, by George Frideric Handel, began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there. The current building is the third theatre on the site, following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1856 to previous buildings. The façade, foyer, and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The main auditorium seats 2,256 people, mak ...
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Kimmo Hakola
Kimmo Hannu Tapio Hakola (born 27 July 1958) is a Finnish composer. Born in Jyväskylä, he studied composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara and Magnus Lindberg at Sibelius Academy. He first came to prominence with his First String Quartet, which won the Unesco Composers' Rostrum in 1987. Among his best-known works are his Clarinet Concerto, Piano Concerto (1996), Violin Concerto (2012) and Guitar Concerto. Apart from concertos he has written several orchestral works, chamber music and solo pieces for different instruments. He has also composed operas including the cartoon opera ''Mastersingers of Mars'' (2000), the family opera ''Mara and Katti'' (2011) and the monologue opera ''Akseli'' (2012). His opera ''La Fenice'' was performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2012. His Concerto “''Fidl”, Op.99, was the test piece for the finalists of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition for Violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instr ...
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Markus Fagerudd
Markus Simon Fagerudd (born 1 June 1961) is a Finnish composer. Fagerudd was born in Jakobstad, Finland. In the 1980s, he studied composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Olli Kortekangas and Kalevi Aho, while working as a musician and composer at the KOM-Theatre. He studied at the Karlsruhe Music Academy from 1993 to 1994 under Wolfgang Rihm. He was composer in residence with the Lappeenranta City Orchestra, and since 1997 he has been the composer in residence with the Vaasa City Orchestra. Fagerudd's varied musical output includes works for solo instruments, chamber and symphony orchestras, and choirs. His best-known works include his children's operas commissioned by the Finnish National Opera and the Savonlinna Opera Festival Savonlinna Opera Festival ( fi, Savonlinnan oopperajuhlat) is held annually in the city of Savonlinna in Finland. The Festival takes place at the medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle), built in 1475. The castle is located amid spectacu ...
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Jukka Linkola
Jukka Tapio Linkola (born 21 July 1955 in Espoo) is a Finnish jazz pianist and classical composer. He has composed music for the Finnish National Opera and led several jazz Big Bands. In addition he has won two Jussi Award, Jussi awards for his film music, which another came from the 1988 film ''The Glory and Misery of Human Life''. His euphonium concerto is considered a standard in the repertoire. References

1955 births Finnish composers Finnish male composers Finnish jazz pianists Living people Male pianists 21st-century pianists 21st-century male musicians Male jazz musicians {{pianist-stub ...
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Jaakko Kuusisto
Jaakko Ilkka Kuusisto (17 January 1974 – 23 February 2022) was a Finnish violinist, composer, and conductor. Education After initial studies under Géza Szilvay and , Kuusisto went on to win the 1989 , place 4th in the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition the following year, and share the 2nd prize in the 1996 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, among others. Kuusisto studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, majoring in violin, as well as at Indiana University under Miriam Fried. Career As a violinist, Kuusisto has appeared in 30 recordings, of which at least 17 credited as a primary artist, performing works from composers such as Sibelius, Prokofiev, Kalevi Aho and Armas Järnefelt; as a conductor, he has recorded a dozen times. On some recordings he collaborated with his brother and fellow violinist Pekka Kuusisto. After an early career as violinist, Kuusisto increasingly turned his attention to composing and conducting. He composed approximatel ...
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Kalevi Aho
Kalevi Ensio Aho (born 9 March 1949) is a Finnish composer. Early years Aho began his interest in music at the age of ten, when he discovered a mandolin in his home and began to teach himself how to play it. He soon was taken under the tutelage of Martti Loikkanen, the boy's 4th grade teacher and founder of a local youth mandolin ensemble in Forssa. After learning how to read sheet music, Aho immediately started composing. Aho progressed so fast on the instrument that Loikkanen suggested he study the violin as well, with Loikkanen giving him private lessons. Aho also began to learn violin at an incredible speed, with him later recalling, "Martti taught me at home for free until I started skipping him out of my playing skills and he suggested changing teachers." Aho's parents were quite supportive of his musical hobby, encouraging him to compose and giving him a piano at the age of 15. Career He moved from the city of Forssa to Helsinki in September 1968 to study at the Sibeliu ...
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Olli Kortekangas
Olli Paavo Antero Kortekangas (born 16 May 1955) is a Finnish composer. Kortekangas was born in Turku. His early career in music began at Espoon Musiikkiopisto (Espoo Music Institute) and the youth choir Candomino. He then studied at the Sibelius Academy as a pupil of Eero Hämeenniemi and Einojuhani Rautavaara from 1974 to 1981, and completed his studies in West Berlin with Dieter Schnebel from 1981 to 1982. Later he has held teaching positions at the Sibelius Academy and the National Theater Academy. He was Composer-in-Residence at Oulu Sinfonia from 1997 to 2007. He has composed about 140 works covering a broad range, from choral works and instrumental miniatures to orchestral music and operas. He has received commissions from ten countries. Among his recent large-scale works are Seven Songs for Planet Earth, commissioned by the Choral Arts Society of Washington and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and Migrations for mezzo-soprano, male voice chorus and orchestra, commis ...
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The Age Of Dreams
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a ...
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Einojuhani Rautavaara
Einojuhani Rautavaara (; 9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara wrote a List of compositions by Einojuhani Rautavaara, great number of works spanning various styles. These include eight symphony, symphonies, nine operas and twelve concertos, as well as numerous vocal and chamber music, chamber works. Having written early works using Serialism, 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as neo-romantic and mystical. His major works include his Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rautavaara), first piano concerto (1969), ''Cantus Arcticus'' (1972) and his seventh symphony, Symphony No. 7 (Rautavaara), ''Angel of Light'' (1994). Life Rautavaara was born in Helsinki in 1928. His father Eino Alfred Rautavaara (né Jernberg; 1876–1939; he changed his last name in 1901) was an opera singer and cantor, and his mother Elsa Katariina Rautavaara (née Teräskeli; o ...
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Aleksis Kivi (opera)
''Aleksis Kivi'' (1995–96) is an opera in two acts by Einojuhani Rautavaara, to a libretto by the composer. It was first performed by the Savonlinna Opera Festival on 8 July 1997, with Jorma Hynninen in the title role. The opera deals with episodes in the life of Aleksis Kivi, the Finnish national writer. The opera was written at the request of Hynninen. Recordings *Rautavaara: Aleksis Kivi 2CD 2002 Jorma Hynninen, Lasse Pöysti, Eeva-Liisa Saarinen, Helena Juntunen, Gabriel Suovanen, Marcus Groth, Lassi Virtanen, Jaakko Hietikko Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Markus Lehtinen Ondine Records. *Rautavaara: Aleksis Kivi DVD Jorma Hynninen (Aleksis Kivi), Janne Reinikainen (August Ahlqvist), Riikka Rantanen (Charlotta), Pauliina Linnosaari (Hilda), Ville Rusanen (Young Alexis) & Tobias Zilliacus (J.L. Runeberg) Finnish National Opera Orchestra, conducted Mikko Franck Mikko Franck is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Biography Franck was born in Helsinki. He began learning the violin a ...
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Paavo Heininen
Paavo Johannes Heininen (13 January 1938 – 18 January 2022) was a Finnish composer and pianist. Biography He was born in Helsinki, where he studied at the Sibelius Academy and was taught composition by Aarre Merikanto, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Einar Englund, and Joonas Kokkonen. He continued his studies in Cologne with Bernd Alois Zimmermann; at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City with Vincent Persichetti and Eduard Steuermann; and privately in Poland with Witold Lutosławski. He also studied musicology at the University of Helsinki. Heininen was one of the most important Finnish modernist composers. His works can be roughly divided into two periods: dodecaphonic (c. 1957–1975) and serialist (from 1976 onwards). Due to the hostile reactions to his early works, particularly the First Symphony, his works up to the 1980s can be roughly divided in two groups: more personal and complex pieces and more approachable, audience-friendly pieces such as the Second Symphony, "Pe ...
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