The European Festivals Association (EFA) and the EFFE International Jury has selected Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival as EFFE Laureate 2019-2020 together with 24 colleague festivals from all over Europe. The Laureates were chosen from amongst 715 festivals with the EFFE Label 2019–2020.

Kuhmo Chamber Music is in the running for the EFFE Award 2019–2020. The EFFE Award Ceremony will take place on 26 September 2019 in Brussels. Among the Awards this year will be the EFFE’s Audience Choice. Vote for the Kuhmo Chamber Music! You can give your vote on www.FestivalFinder.eu.

The 50th Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival held in July 2019 attracted even larger audiences than in previous years. The Festival´s theme, Nostalgia, intrigued visitors so much that 20 of the event’s 70 concerts sold out completely. In all, over 35,000 seats were sold over the two weeks.

Among visitors was a group of fine classical music connoisseurs from Belgium. Mr Jan Van Den Bossche, owner of the Cimarosa Travel Agency and one of tour leaders of the Group, says that “our guests were very much pleased with their attendance at the Festival. It was a big surprise for us to find such a remote Place – in a little Finnish town, in the midst of a beautiful scenery of woodland and lakes – there is a yearly gathering of musicians from all over the world. They brought us splendid concerts. I personally will never forget Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1 with pianist Natacha Kudritskaya, amongst many others. I am sure we will come back to Kuhmo in the near future”.

Mrs Sari Rusanen, Executive Director of the Festival, says that the theme for the 51st Kuhmo Festival on July 12 –25, 2020 will be the Art of Illusion. Mrs Rusanen will participate at the EFFE Award Ceremony 26th Sep 2019 in Brussels.

Kuhmo Chamber Music is the the biggest and oldest chamber music festival in Finland. Internationally Kuhmo ranks among the world’s leading music festivals. It has succeeded in producing contents and practices that have been taken as models for other festivals in the world. Already in 1989 Connoisseur music magazine in the USA said that “for two frenetic weeks each July, the backwood Finnish town of Kuhmo – a bit south of the Arctic Circle and just west of the Russian border – is host to a unique chamber music festival, possibly the best anywhere”. In 2014 the Financial Times wrote about Kuhmo under the heading “a remote lakeside town hosts a remarkable event, where unfettered creative idealism reigns”. In 2018 Kuhmo Chamber Music recieved the Cremona Musica Award in Italy.

More information:
Kuhmo Chamber Music, tel. +358 8 652 0936
Mrs Sari Rusanen, Executive Director of the Festival, E-mail: sari.rusanen(at)kuhmofestival.fi

Wild Taiga Finland, www.wildtaiga.fi, tel +358 50 592 0505
Ms Jaana Keränen, Sales Manager of the local travel trade association, E-mail: jaana(at)wildtaiga.com