choir music

A mixed choir exploring the borderlands between musical theatre and multi-discipline art and performing almost exclusively the conceptual-art works of its conductor Petra Poutanen boldly blazes a trail of its own beyond the realm of conventional choral aesthetics.

I fire up YouTube and browse through the channels of Finnish choirs. In the past four or five years, I have noticed a new kind of content emerging alongside traditional concert recordings: separately produced, dedicated music videos with visuals that have nothing to do with a concert setting. What are choirs aiming at by producing videos like this?

Finland’s choral scene is vibrant, and its professional side has further solidified in recent years. It is important for amateur and professional choirs alike to move with the times by creating new choral repertoire and providing opportunities for composers to make discoveries with the choral instrument. Recent developments have brought the choral scene to a turning point.

​"Award winning conductor Erik Westberg and his vocal ensemble teamed up with Sámi musicians to create a one of a kind album."

"It is delightful that the ambitious concert projects by the Helsinki Chamber Choir so often become available in recorded form."

His music is constantly being performed abroad. In Finland, he is known as a composer of choral music and an active singer. Regular readers of FMQ will recognise him as one of our house translators. Jaakko Mäntyjärvi is something of a musical outlier.

The Estonian song festival is a concept whose history and significance cannot be assessed with conventional artistic criteria. Since the last century, the song festivals organized in Tallinn have been a demonstration of Estonian culture and national spirit whose power has been strongest at crucial turning points in the nations history. On the other hand, they have also served as a showcase for a rich and original culture of singing and as a demonstration of a rare and heartfelt musical togetherness.

One of the most distinctive aspects of the Finnish music scene is its vibrant youth choir culture. When this article was first published in 1997, the number of such choirs was on the rise. This republication offers a unique glimpse into this fascinating phenomenon as it stood in the late 1990s.

In his article from 1987 Markku Kilpiö takes a look at Finnish choral singing.