Virtaperko premiere at Avanti Chamber Club, September 14th

The second edition of Avanti! Chamber Orchestra’s new Chamber Club Series is programmed by Olli Virtaperko, who also hosts the event. The concert takes place on September 14th in Avanti’s Rehearse Hall at Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki. The program includes the premiere of Virtaperko’s new chamber work, Dambra 2.

“I created the concert around two great musicians I’ve known and worked with for almost two decades, saxophonist Joonatan Rautiola and accordionist Niko Kumpuvaara, who will together perform Secular Meditation for alto saxophone and accordion, which the commissioned from me in 2018.

Niko will also perform Fantasia “Liberazione”, a solo work that I wrote in 2017 for harpsichord in meantone temperament. In this concert the piece will be played by accordion – tuned in meantone temperament(!).

For the premiere of Dambra 2 (2024), Kumpuvaara and Rautiola will be joined by saxophonist Anna-Sofia Anttonen and pianist Mariko Furukawa, as well as myself on the cello. Other composers of the evening will be György Ligeti with his classic Hungarian Rock on accordion; Christian Lauba, whose Etudes for saxophone have left an permanent mark on my saxophone output and two Orlandos – Orlando Gibbons and Orlando Bass. The pair of two-part fantasias by Gibbons will be played by Joonatan and Anna-Sofia on two soprano saxophones, and Five Verses (2022) by Orlando Bass is written for alto saxophone and piano.” (OV 09/2024)