The next Sounds of Luosto festival will be held 27-31.7.2022. Two different orchestras will travel to Luosto to perform: the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, and the 100-year-old Polytech Orchestra. The festival will also include a large variety of chamber music and interesting soloists.
The festival is a day longer than in 2021, and the programming significantly broader. Across five days, Luosto and the surrounding area will hear 16 different performances, with works by over 30 composers from all over the world.
Music from stories and myths
2022’s festival is themed around stories and myths. The theme has allowed for a program with both music and tales from cultures around the world, including Sami stories from just in Luosto’s backyard.
Some of the concerts will be held in Sodankylä’s 330-year-old wooden church and the impactful natural amphitheatres of the Pyhä-Luosto region, including the stage on Ukko-Luosto, in Aittakuru, and at Tajukangas. Other performances will be held in various halls and art exhibitions in the area.
The core of the programming will consist of chamber music, both eternal classics and rarer gems. The festival will grant an opportunity for an audience to hear music that tells stories from the creation of the world to dances of death and metamorphosis.
Along the way, audiences will have the chance to participate in many multi-disciplinary performances, in addition to more traditional chamber and solo concerts.
The baseline for the programming has been to create concerts that are easy for the audience to approach, while also attempting to introduce them to new music that may bring them to exciting and surprising places.
The festival will also feature morning presentations for the first time, which will discuss the music of the day and introduce audiences to composers and works they may not have encountered before.
5 days, 16 concerts
The festivals opening concert will be held on Wednesday 27.7.
On Thursday evening 28.7, the Polytech Orchestra will visit Luosto, conducted by chief conductor James S. Kahane. The concert is part of the orchestra’s 100th anniversary tour. On Friday 29.7, the audience will have an opportunity to go on a concert visit to Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, where they will also have the chance to view the incredible local art collection and hear performances inspired by the displays.
Friday night will also feature a concert planned specifically for children for the first time.
The festival’s main concert will be held on the afternoon of Saturday, 30.7, and the incredible outdoor stage of Ukko-Luosto will house the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, conducted by artistic director of the festival, conductor Aku Sorensen.
Saturday evening in contrast will feature a bar-gig, quickly becoming a tradition at Luosto. This time however, the evening will be spent to the rhythms of tango!
The finale concert will be on Sunday 31.7, and will offer a peek into the themes of 2023. In addition to the orchestral musicians arriving, the festival will feature both outstanding young talent and established international stars.
The full program for the festival will be published at the beginning of February 2022, when tickets go on sale. The photograph above features artists of the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra.
Photo by Petteri Järvinen.