HELSINKI, FINLAND.- Beginning this August 21, 2004, the Helsinki Festival will begin. Helsinki Festival was preceded by the Sibelius Weeks held for a decade and a half 1951—1965  It operates under the auspices of the Helsinki Week Foundation established in 1967. The Foundation also administers the UMO Jazz Orchestra (since 1983) and was first held at the end of May 1968. Later it was shifted to late summer in 1971 and -is one of the four main organizers of Musica nova Helsinki - a festival of contemporary music.

The Helsinki Festival menu includes:

-Children’s Festival (1978—1986, 2001-),

-Night of the Arts (1989-) attracting tens of thousands in the city centre and suburbs

-Huvila Festival Tent (1995-), a unique venue by the sea

-Art goes Kapakka (1995-): artists in restaurants, bars and clubs

-Enchanted Way (1998-), tour of the city’s numerous art galleries

-culinary open-air Piazza of Tastes (1998-2000)

-Lord Mayor’s Popular Concert (2001-)

-Can You Festival? (2001-2002)

-Street event ASVALTTI (2003-)

Among the event’s previous directors are:

Viggo Grundstroem and Gunnar Arne Jensen 1968—1969

Seppo Nummi 1969—1976

Seppo Kimanen 1976—1979

Veijo Varpio 1979—1994

Artistic Committee chaired by Esa-Pekka Salonen 1995—1996

Risto Nieminen 1997—

Sibelius: Violin Concerto / soloists:

Sibelius Weeks 1951-1965

1951 Isaac Stern

1952 Ricardo Odnoposoff

1953 Emil Telmányi

1954 David Oistrah

1955 Yehudi Menuhin

1956 Henryk Szeryng

1957 Anja Ignatius

1959 Tossy Spivakovski

1960 Endre Wolf

1961 Ruggiero Ricci

1962 Zino Francescatti

1963 Edith Peinemann

1964 Christian Ferras

1965 David Oistrah

 

Helsinki Festival 1968-

 

1968 Igor Oistrakh

1971 Pavel Kogan

1972 Masuko Ushioda

1973 Vaclav Hudecek

1975 Gidon Kremer

1976 Oleg Kagan

1977 Ida Händel

1978 Shizuka Ishikawa

1979 Isaac Stern

1980 Henryk Szeryng

1981 Salvatore Accardo

1982 Raimundas Katilius

1985 Eugen Sarbu

1990 Shlomo Mintz

1998 Leonidas Kavakos

1999 Elisabeth Batiashvili

2000 Thomas Zehetmair

2001 Gidon Kremer

2002 Julian Rachlin

2003 Antti Tikkanen

Among the different organizations to participate in the event are:  

Alexander Theatre

Amos Anderson Art Museum

Annantalo Arts Centre

Ateneum Hall

Bio Rex

Festival Centre, Glass Palace, exhibition room

Finlandia Hall

Finnish National Theatre

Galleria Sculptor

House of Nobility

Huvila Festival Tent

Kanneltalo

Kunsthalle Helsinki

Lasipalatsi

Media Centre Lume, Studio Stage

Old Church

Savoy Theatre

Sello Hall, Leppävaara

Stoa – The Cultural Centre of Eastern Helsinki

Suomenlinna

Temppeliaukio Church

The Finnish National Opera, Almi Hall

Theatre Museum

UMO Jazz House

A retrospective including many rarely-displayed works from private collections.

Helsinki Festival is an arts festival held annually in late August—early September. It takes in music, theatre, dance, the visual arts, cinema and city events featuring both Finnish and non-Finnish artists of international repute.

Pioneer of Finnish informalism and modernism yet interested in pop art. Literary activist, poet, critic and essayist and above all artist with a keen sense of the times. “I don’t see any great borders between the arts; all I see is the need for expression and to express,” said Ahti Lavonen.