Turku Music Festival announces recital by legendary actress Seela Sella, soprano Pia Freund and pianist Kristian Attila at Bethel Church on 15 Sep 2020.
The Turku Music Festival regrets that it is forced to cancel the concert announced for Sunday 4 October due to the coronavirus situation.
“The concert was to have been part of the European tour of Franco Fagioli and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. The entire tour has been cancelled because of the current coronavirus situation. Their Turku concert has now been rescheduled for 15 January 2022. Customers who have already bought tickets can use them as is at the rescheduled concert or return them for a refund. We are sorry for the disappointment, but we are delighted that the tour has been rescheduled and that we can now announce the new concert date,” says Liisa Ketomäki, Managing Director of the Turku Music Festival.
Seela Sella, Pia Freund and Kristian Attila at Bethel Church on 15 September
The Turku Music Festival announces a recital to be held for a restricted audience at Bethel Church on 15 September 2020 at 6 PM. The performers are legendary Finnish stage actress Seela Sella, soprano Pia Freund and pianist Kristian Attila. Seela Sella reads extracts from letters of well-known artist couples in a programme combining music and poetry. Exploring the lives and sentiments of artist couples such as the Sibeliuses and the Kuulas, the programme illustrates what it is like to be alone and together, to grow and to let go, to live amidst creation and destruction. Gems of Finnish vocal music old and new engage in dialogue with letters by Aino Sibelius and Alma Kuula and with poems by Katri Vala, L. Onerva and Aila Meriluoto. The music featured is by Sibelius, Kuula, Madetoja, Kilpinen, Attila and Ilkka Kuusisto.
“This is a programme that was to have formed part of the Music Festival in August. We are now going ahead with a small-scale performance for a restricted audience at Bethel Church on 15 September at 6 PM,” says Liisa Ketomäki.
With a view to safe distancing, only 100 tickets are on sale for the recital at Bethel Church, which has a capacity of 400 seats. Concert guests will be guided to seats on a first come, first served basis. The Turku Music Festival recommends that concert guests wear face masks. “Our employees will be wearing face masks. We will be passing out face masks to audience members at the door and hope that people will take them and use them if they have not brought one of their own. Elsewhere in Europe, concerts have been organised using these precautions: restricted attendance, safe distancing and face masks worn by customers and employees. There is no interval as such, but a restroom break can be taken while the performers change their clothes. We will manage the traffic so that we can avoid congregating and queuing during the concert,” says Liisa Ketomäki, Managing Director of the Turku Music Festival.
Tickets go on sale on 19 August 2020 at 9.00.
The concert given by the Turku Music Festival in December, with mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato and the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, is going ahead as announced. Some of the concerts originally scheduled for the Music Festival in 2020 have been rescheduled for 2021 (recital by baritone Thomas Hampson on 24 Apr 2021 and recital by tenor Juan Diego Flórez on 18 Jun 2021), and tickets for these are available at Lippupiste points of sale as normal.
“We very much want to offer our audiences musical experiences before this year is out, but it is of the utmost importance for us to do so in a responsible and safe way. We are monitoring the situation and will scale our approach as required. We will be giving out more information as needed in the autumn,” says Ketomäki.
Tickets to all events of the Turku Music Festival are available at Lippupiste points of sale.
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If you have already purchased tickets for the Franco Fagioli concert, they will be honoured as is at the rescheduled concert on 15 Jan 2022. Alternatively, you may return the tickets and request a refund or exchange the tickets for a voucher to the Turku Music Festival if the new concert date is unsuitable. Refunds must be claimed by 30 Nov 2020.
Vouchers will be honoured as payment at Lippupiste full service outlets (not at R kiosks or in the online shop) and will be valid up until 31 Dec 2021. A list of full service outlets can be found on the Lippupiste website: https://www.lippu.fi/help/outlets/
To request a refund, send an e-mail to Lippupiste at or phone 0600 900 900 (EUR 2 per min + local call charge). In the message, give your postal address and the individual numbers of the original tickets or other identifying details such as the booking number.
You may also request a refund online at https://web.lippu.fi/palautus, or you may mail in your tickets, enclosing your contact information and bank account details, to:
Lippupiste Oy / Franco Fagioli returns
Kalevantie 2 (B-talo)
FI-33100 Tampere
You will be refunded the price of the actual ticket(s). Service charges and delivery charges will not be refunded.
Please note that because of the large number of refunds being processed there are delays in paying out refunds.
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The Artistic Director of the Turku Music Festival is conductor Klaus Mäkelä.
Further information and interview requests:
Managing Director Liisa Ketomäki, tel. 040 740 6200, e-mail