The Turku Music Festival, whose 2018 edition ends today, is Finland’s oldest continuously held music festival: next year’s festival is the 60th of its kind. The anniversary year will feature a substantial programme, and the run-up begins today with the publication of the details of its first concert.
The opening concert of the Turku Music Festival in 2019 will continue the festival’s tradition of featuring distinguished international opera singers, with German soprano Dorothea Röschmann and British tenor Ian Bostridge taking the stage with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Klaus Mäkelä. Mäkelä is also the festival’s new artistic director. He describes the concert programme thus:
”Next year’s opening concert will offer the audience an irresistible combination of great orchestral music and international star singers. Ian Bostridge and Dorothea Röschmann are made for interpreting the songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn which in this concert are surrounded by Richard Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Kaija Saariaho’s Asteroid 4179 followed by Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra op. 30.”
For Ian Bostridge, his performance in Turku will be his debut in Finland: ”I’m so pleased to be making my first appearance in Finland, singing with my dear friend Dorothea Röschman and excited to be at the Turku Music Festival!”
Opening concert Thu 8 Aug 2019 at 19.00, Turku Concert Hall
Dorothea Röschmann, soprano
Ian Bostridge, tenor
Turku Philharmonic Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
Richard Wagner: Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Gustav Mahler: Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
– – –
Kaija Saariaho: Asteroid 4179: Toutatis
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra op. 30
The Turku Music Festival runs from 8 to 22 August 2019. The programme in this anniversary year will feature prominent international performers and a cavalcade of Finnish musicians. The full programme will be published in February 2019.
This summer, some 16,000 people attended the more than 30 concerts and other events at the Turku Music Festival. “We met our goals in terms of both box office sales and visitor numbers. Many concerts were sold out, and the feedback was positive. This is an excellent place to start planning for our 60th anniversary next year,” says Liisa Ketomäki, managing director of the Music Festival Foundation.
Tickets to the 2019 opening concert will go on sale on 23 August 2018 at Lippupiste. Further information and requests for interviews
Further information is available from managing director Liisa Ketomäki, tel. +358 (0)40 740 6200