This year audience numbers at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival remained just as high as they had been in recent years. The number of visitors to the Festival on the final day is still unknown, but the estimate is 35,500. The massive success of the event was anticipated when advance sales reached an all-time record.
The Festival’s theme this year was time in its various forms, from the creation of the world to the seasons of the year. There were 74 concerts in all, 10 of which were sold out. The events of most interest in the second week were the Sibelius day and the tango concert. Pekka ja Susi (Peter and the Wolf) also proved to be more popular than the children’s events that had been put on in previous years.
During the first week of the Festival, the weather was chilly. The streets were quieter, but the concert audiences seemed larger as a result.
[subtitle]Next year’s theme: the Global Village[/subtitle]
Next year Kuhmo will become a Global Village, as that is the theme of the Festival in 2016. Artistic Director Vladimir Mendelssohn points out that Kuhmo was in fact a global village long before the concept itself emerged. ’Now Kuhmo is like the Tower of Babel’, he says. ’Aristists from all over the world come here. The idea is that these inhabitants of the Global Village will bring to next year’s Festival music from their own countries – the sounds that represent their own culture best.’
Obviously, next summer Kuhmo will also feature the traditional classical works of chamber music, but the Global Village theme will bring an ethnic flavour to the proceedings. It all promises to be an enjoyable and exciting musical experience, such as we have come to expect at Kuhmo.
The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival runs from 10 to 23 July next year. At the same time, Vladimir Mendelssohn will start his second ten-year tenure as the Festival’s Artistic Director.
[b]Further information from:[/b]
Kuhmo Chamber Music, tel. 08 652 0936