Concerts:

Tapiola Originals

Tapiola Originals is an International collection of works commissioned from composers from countries of the Baltic Sea area. Together, the works reflect the diversity, vitality and International character of the northern musical scene.

Erkki-Sven Tüür: Inquietude du fini , 20´, for choir and chamber orchestra, premiered in Espoo in 1992 with Tapiola Sinfonietta.
Thomas Jennefelt: Tre sekvenser (Three Sequences), 30´, joint commission with the Jubilate Chamber Choir and the Amici Cantus male voice choir, premiered in Helsinki in 1994.
This choral suite was nominated for the Nordic Council´s Music Prize in 2004.
Urmas Sisask: Yleiset luomissanat (Words of Creation), 15´, premiered in Helsinki in 1995.
Kaija Saariaho: Tag des Jahrs (The Seasons), 15´, for choir and electronics, premiered in Helsinki in 2002.
Jouni Kaipainen: Des Flusses Stimme, Ein Requiem für Chor a cappella, (The Voice of the River, A Requiem for mixed choir a cappella), 20´, premiered in Espoo in 2004.
Pehr-Henrik Nordgren: De Sole et Luna, 20´, for choir and string orchestra, premiered in Helsinki in 2007.
More new works will be premiered in the future.

The National Library Project

The purpose of the National Library Project is to perform and record the choral works of major Finnish choral composers.
To date, the Choir has recorded the complete works for mixed choir and women’s choir of Toivo Kuula (1883-1918) and Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), the former in 1993 and the latter in 1996-97. Both collections were released on Finlandia Records. In both projects, the unpublished manuscripts were edited for performance by Tero Tommila.

A new recording of works for mixed choir of Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947) will be published in 2008 on Alba Records.

The Choir has also recorded Finnish operas with the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera, the Finnish Radio Symhony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Composer-in-residence

In 2000-2005, the Choir had composer-in-residence agreement with Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. The first new work under this agreement was SALVAT 1701, a 70-minute choral drama consisting of texts and hymns from the Finnish ‘Old Hymnal’ of 1701, premiered and released on CD in autumn 2001 on the occasion of the hymnal’s 300th anniversary. The Choir has also released the first CD dedicated solely to his works, ECLECTICA (Warner Classics / Finlandia Records).
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (b. 1963) studied English and Linguistics at the University of Helsinki, graduating with an FK (=MA) degree in 1991. He has studied theory of music and choir conducting at the Sibelius Academy.Most of his output as a composer consists of choral works, some 40 of which have been published to date. Mäntyjärvi describes himself as an eclectic traditionalist: eclectic in that he adopts influences from a number of styles and periods, fusing them into his own idiom; traditionalist in that his musical language is based on a traditional approach and uses the resources of modern music only sparingly.
His major choral works include Four Shakespeare Songs (1984), More Shakespeare Songs (1997) and Kouta ( 1996); his work Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae, a memorial to the victims of the sinking of the car ferry Estonia in 1994, received 3rd prize in the European composition competition for cathedral choirs in 1997. His works, many of which number among the best-selling sheet music items of his publisher, SULASOL, have been performed as far afield as Japan, Singapore, South Africa and the USA, and some have been recorded by distinguished ensembles such as the Swedish Radio Choir, the BBC Singers and Chanticleer.
Major commissions include choral works for the contemporary choral music seminar at the Cork International Choral Festival in spring 1999 (Psalm 150 in Kent Treble Bob Minor) and the 700th anniversary of the consecration of Turku Cathedral in summer 2000 (Ecce magnus presbiter). The 20-minute work Kosijat (The Suitors) commissioned by The Esoterics of Seattle (Washington), USA, was premiered in Seattle in autumn 2001, and recent commissions include ones from Chanticleer (The Ballad of the Oysterman, 2001) and the King's Singers (Armahda meidän pääIlem’, 2002).

Mainstream Repertoire for Choir and Orchestra

Finnish, Scandinavian and Baltic Repertoire for Choir and Orchestra