Musiikkitalo

A new era began at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki in 2024 when its concert organ was inaugurated. The instrument is now heard nearly every week and has given rise to a vast number of new creations. Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen talked to Mioko Yokoyama, one of the composers inspired by the new organ, and organist Jan Lehtola, who played a vital role in bringing the instrument to life.

Maarit Kytöharju is a Helsinki-based photographer who specialises in taking photos of music and musicians. She made us a compilation of 12 photos reflecting the shifting moods in live music in Finland in 2020.

There is a clinic at the Music Centre in Helsinki where anything up to a dozen physicians and other health care professionals may be found treating one patient. Multi-discipline collaboration is leveraged to address the most difficult ailments at the Musicians’ Clinic.

The organisations behind the Helsinki Music Centre’s Orchestra Academy are three of the biggest classical music institutions in the Finnish capital: the Sibelius Academy, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic. In practice, the Orchestra Academy is a consortium designed to bring together orchestral pros and students.

Despite repeated and persistent efforts spanning a century, Helsinki has never had a true orchestral concert hall until this year. The new Music Centre, opening in August 2011, is the first ever venue in Finland's capital city specifically designed and intended for the performing of symphonic music.

Musiikkitalo of Helsinki represents a number of challenges for conductor Hannu Lintu, forthcoming Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He foresees not only a brilliant sound but increasing competition.