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WELCOME TO THE KAUSTINEN CHAMBER MUSIC WEEK!
Composer Pehr Henrik Nordgren’s (1944-2008) vision of a series of concerts in a small village in Central Ostrobothnia in the darkest mid-winter has carried on from the late 1970s to the present day.
The programme of the concerts ranges from early Baroque to contemporary music and folk music to children’s concerts. Over the years, many composers of our time have visited the Chamber Music Week, and the number of premieres has been remarkable: over 70 compositions have been premiered at Kaustinen.
From the beginning, cooperation with Kaustinen College of Music and local musicians has been an invaluable part of the Chamber Music Week. The week is also a significant event in a national scale. The Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE regularly records concerts during the week, and the top names in chamber music have always enjoyed performing at the Kaustinen Chamber Music Week
Thanks largely to Nordgren’s perseverance, Chamber Music Week also received a well-deserved setting, the Folk Art Centre’s 320-seat Kaustinen Hall, which is perfect for classical music concerts. Another central venue is the Kaustinen Church, completed in 1777, and the Central Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, with its excellent acoustics, is pleased to be featured here. Visual arts and related exhibitions have been part of the weekly program from the very beginning. The Kallio Hall in the Folk Arts Centre provides a great setting for the interaction between music and visual arts.
After the evening concerts, Restaurant Pelimanni provides a casual and comfortable setting for jam sessions toward the end of the week. Here you can see artist guests joining in to a jam session, or just enjoying the folk music and cosy atmosphere.
The Chamber Music Week is organized by the Kaustinen Chamber Music Association.
47TH KAUSTINEN CHAMBER MUSIC WEEK 24.1.–1.2.2025.
Greetings from the Artistic Director
Tiila Kangas, picture Krista Järvelä
Dear chamber music lovers old and new,
Welcome to Kaustinen Chamber Music Week 24.1.-1.2.2025!
As has been the case since 1979, the last week of January is the time to enjoy chamber music in Kaustinen in all its diversity. Our guests include established chamber music ensembles, a chamber orchestra (guess which one?) and individual artists, who we will also get to hear in new formations. Works by the week’s guest composer, Minna Leinonen, will be performed in several concerts. The Valo Quartet – which, surprisingly, is not an ensemble from Kaustinen – will premiere a new piece by Minna alongside Pehr Henrik Nordgren’s 10th string quartet – in keeping with the perennial theme of presenting Nordgren’s work, him being the founder of Chamber Music Week. Mira Roivainen is the Visual Artist of the Year and her exhibition will be shown at the art gallery of the Folk Arts Centre.
The existence of the Kaustinen Chamber Music Week has seen both more favourable and more difficult periods from the point of view of national cultural policy, and now, unfortunately, we are living in a time of uncertainty and cutbacks in the cultural field as well. Although music does not change with the economic cycle, but nourishes and speaks freely of it, public appreciation and support is required to make it equally accessible for everyone. In difficult times, culture is what is needed more than ever. Fortunately, the power of music is more deeply and widely understood in Kaustinen than in many other places. Let us be even prouder of this and ensure that even future generations can be immersed in culture.
Kaustinen Chamber Music Week has a low threshold for participation: this year again, all under 18 years can attend concerts for free, there are several free-for-all events, and every child and young person over the age of 3 will be taken to a concert by their school or daycare. Of course, I also encourage ticket-paying members of the audience to come to the concerts – preferably with a friend under each arm!
Welcome!
See you in January!
Tiila Kangas