Finnish composers to be featured in Italy
Finnish classical and contemporary music is well presented in Italy during this autumn. Sibelius Festival – Golfo del Tigullio takes place in Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure and Recco in 8–12 October. The festival will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Jean Sibelius at the landscapes where the composer sought for artistic inspiration in 1901. Sibelius described this Italian Riviera Ligure to be "one of the most beautiful parts of Italy" and it was an important inspiration for his famed second symphony.
In addition to Sibelius, the festival programme includes music of other Finnish composers too as music by Aulis Sallinen, Pehr Henrik Nordgren and Jukka Tiensuu will be heard. The artistic director of the festival, Federico Ermirio, states: “The series of events in the Gulf of Tigullio are not only a tribute to Sibelius, but an excursus on the Finnish music with an angle that encompasses the area of Northern Europe in general.” New Helsinki Quartet and other Finnish musicians Folke Gräsbeck, Satu Jalas and Suvi Lehtonen-Gräsbeck will perform at the festival too.
The younger generation of Finnish composers is represented in Italy in September–October too, as Maija Hynninen and Jouni Hirvelä take part in the finals of Feeding Music International Composition Contest. Compositions by Hynninen and Hirvelä were selected amongst over six hundred chamber music works composed either for Divertimento Ensemble or Sentieri Selvaggi. The 50 works chosen for the finals will be performed two times during September and October at EXPO Milan 2015. The new compositions are all connected to the Expo 2015 theme ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’.