Conductor: Okko Tapani Kamu
The Lahti Symphony Orchestra's objective is to offer its audiences memorable experiences, both in concert and on disc, and at the same time to present music that is interesting and of high quality. Many years of persistent work under the leadership of Conductor Osmo Vänskä has made the Lahti Symphony Orchestra one of the most renowned orchestras of the Nordic countries. The orchestra's ambitious and fresh approach to work is audible and visible. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra has the ability to surprise, to renew and broaden the scale of its concert programs.

Jean Sibelius: Rakastava (The Lover), Op.14
Violin Solo: Jaakko Kuusisto
Cello Solo: Ilkka Palli

 

Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47
Soloist: Ilya Gringolts

Intermission

Jean Sibelius: Scene with Cranes

 

Jean Sibelius:: Symphony No.7, Op.105

 

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra's objective is to offer its audiences memorable experiences, both in concert and on disc, and at the same time to present music that is interesting and of high quality.

 

Many years of persistent work under the leadership of Conductor Osmo Vänskä has made the Lahti Symphony Orchestra one of the most renowned orchestras of the Nordic countries. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra's home concert hall is located at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, a wooden congress and concert centre completed in March 2000. The orchestra's new home concert hall has outstanding acoustics that are considered one of the best internationally. Sibelius Hall has provided the Lahti Symphony Orchestra more opportunities to expand its authentic sound. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra wants to guarantee that all of its performances create enjoyable experiences for audiences, regardless of whether they are playing a symphony, concertos, the Beatles, popular music, classical favorites, or modern compositions.

 

The orchestra's ambitious and fresh approach to work is audible and visible. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra has the ability to surprise, to renew and broaden the scale of its concert programs. Two examples of these characteristics are the 20th century premiere of Sibelius's work The Wood- Nymph, performed in 1996, and the historical jazz-symphony concert with humour, in cooperation with the jazz ensemble "Trio Töykeät" along with the violinist brothers, Jaakko and Pekka Kuusisto, just before Christmas in 2000.

 

The same unconditional ambition and freedom of prejudice in interpretation is presented to listeners in the Lahti Symphony Orchestra's over 50 recordings. In addition to Sibelius's works, along with other music, the complete orchestral works of Joonas Kokkonen, an honorary member of the orchestra, has been recorded. Under production, for BIS Records, there are also the entire orchestral works of its composer-in-residence since 1992, Kalevi Aho. Others include composers Uuno Klami and Einojuhani Rautavaara.

 

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra has won international acclaim for its recordings several times. The Sibelius recordings alone have the following awards: two Gramophone Awards (1991, 1996), the Grand Prix du Disque (1993) and the Cannes Classical Award twice (1997 and 2001). In February 2001, the prestigious "Gramophone Magazine" mentioned the Lahti Symphony Orchestra's recording of Sibelius's Sixth Symphony as the world's all-time best recording of this work. International music experts have elected several of the orchestra's recordings as the "Disc of the Year". The Lahti Symphony Orchestra's premiere recording of the original version of Sibelius's "Violin Concerto" was the first classical music disc to achieve the "Golden Record Award" in Finland. Other Golden Record winners of the orchestra are the discs "Finlandia" - a Festival of Finnish music, the disc "Christmas Wonderland" from 1998 and the disc with Finnish hymns, 2001.

 

Osmo Vänskä has been the chief conductor of the orchestra since 1988 (main guest conductor 1985-88). The Lahti Symphony Orchestra performs annually in Helsinki and gives concerts at several music festivals in Finland, as well as, abroad. It has visited St. Petersburg, England, Germany, France, Sweden, Japan and New York. In 2003 the orchestra has a tour in Japan and concerts at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, at the BBC Proms in London and at the Congertgebouw in Amsterdam.

 

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra was established in 1949 to continue the work of, among others, the "Lahti Music Friends' Orchestra" which had operated since1910.

 

World renowned conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste will be leading the Lahti Symphony Orchestra starting August 2008. Saraste held the post of Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 2001, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1987 – 2001, and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra since 2006.

Okko Tapani Kamu (born March 7, 1946, Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish orchestral conductor who currently holds the position as Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

 

Kamu was born into a family of musicians. His father played double bass in the Helsinki Philharmonic. He very soon took up the violin and was able to enter the Sibelius Academy at the age of six.

 

He formed his own string quartet, the Suhonen, in 1964 where he played first violin for a number of years and at the age of twenty he was appointed to be first solo violin at the Finnish National Opera. Kamu held this post until 1968, when he moved into conducting. A self-taught orchestral director, he became chief guest conductor of the Royal Swedish Opera in 1969, the same year as he won the first Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin. This latter achievement opened the doors to an international career. Kamu has conducted the leading orchestras of the world and has been musical director of Finnish and Dutch Radio, of the Helsinki and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras and of the Stockholm Sinfonietta. He has also been chief guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Copenhagen Philharmonic.

 

Kamu has been music director of the Finnish National Opera and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, as well as permanent guest conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. He is currently principal guest conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Soloist he had worked with include violinist Denis Goldfeld, Pierre Amoyal, Lynnette Seah, Hagai Shaham, Maria-Elisabeth Lott, pianist Steven Osborne, Vladimir Feltsman, cellist Jan Vogler, Ni Hai Ye, and trombonist Christian Lindberg.

 

Okko Kamu has recorded more than 100 discs for various labels. For Naxos Records, he has recorded Franz Berwald's four symphonies and his piano concerto; Aulis Sallinen's Complete Music for String Orchestra; flute concertos by Penderecki, Takemitsu and Sallinen and an album of Swedish orchestral favourites.

 

Okko Kamu's two discs of Berwald for Naxos both received the rare Diapason d'Or award. In 2006 he appeared with the Asian Youth Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra with Ylioppilaskunnan Laulajat male chorus and pianist Artur Pizarro.
He is a father of six: Benjamin, Alexis, Kaspar, Saana, Ira and Ona. He currently resides in Helsinki, Finland. Kamu is a keen golfer and has played in over 30 countries.

 

 

lya Gringolts, Violin Winner of the 1998 International Violin Competition “Premio Paganini”, Ilya Gringolts was also awarded two special prizes for the youngest ever competitor to be placed in the final and the best interpreter of Paganini’s Caprices. Ilya studied violin and composition at the St. Petersburg Special Music School with Tatiana Liberova and Jeanna Metallidi and at the Juilliard School in New York with Itzhak Perlman and the late Dorothy Delay. He was also one of twelve young artists selected by the BBC for their New Generation Artists Scheme.

 

Recent notable highlights include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, UBS Verbier Orchestra with Kurt Masur and Mstislav Rostropovich, Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov, Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin, BBC Philharmonic with Vassily Sinaisky at the Proms and the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Vladimir Jurowski. Ilya's present and forthcoming solo engagements include the Orchestre de Venezuela and Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Claudio Abbado, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Ilan Volkov, a tour to Germany and Spain with the NDR Hannover with Vasily Petrenko, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington at Wolf Trap Centre for the Performing Arts with Andrew Grams, Bournemouth Symphony with Kirill Karabits, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg with Jakub Hrusa, and the St Magnus Festival with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Ilya has also undertaken extensive tours of Asia and Australasia, including visits to Kuala Lumpur in which he toured with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, Tasmania Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and in October 2007, he appeared in a gala concert in Osaka to mark the 25th anniversary of the Osaka Symphony Hall.

 

His recital highlights include appearances at the Verbier and Lucerne Festivals, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, the Palau de la Musica, Valencia, the Beethoven Bonn Festival, the Louvre and the Colmar Festival, together with annual invitations from the Milan Serate Musicali. Next season he will be presenting the complete cycle of Beethoven Violin Sonatas at the Verbier Festival and subsequent tours to Italy and Spain. In June 2008, Ilya will give the world premiere by Sir Peter Maxwell Davis of his new Violin Sonata at St. Magnus Festival and Cheltenham International Music Festival. He has also been invited to the 2009 Enescu Festival.

 

Ilya continues to be active in the recording studios and in addition to his three previous Deutsche Grammophon discs, this year he has recorded the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Claudio Abbado/Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela for Deutsche Grammophon. Ilya is also a Hyperion Artist and his solo violin disc of Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst for Hyperion which includes the six Etudes, Erlkoenig, Otello Fantasy and Elegy to be released in February 2008. Most recently, he won a Gramophone Award for his Taneyev Chamber Music CD for Deutsche Grammophon. He has also made three previous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and his third recording, of Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.1 and Sibelius, was released in 2004 to great critical acclaim. His previous recordings for DGG - a disc of solo Bach works and the Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich first Concertos - received outstanding reviews. His previous recordings for BIS Records have been greeted with a number ofextraordinary accolades.

 

Ilya plays a Ruggeri violin loaned to him by Otto Karl Schenk, Bern/Switzerland