Programme

Thursday 23.7.2026

10.00 Salakamari

The Heart of the Day - In conversation with today’s featured composer, Krishna Nagaraja (this session will in English, admission free)

Krishna Nagaraja

Thursday 23.7.2026

48. 11.00 Kuhmo Church — €28/21

Kamarista coaching programme

From the Kuhmo Chamber is a new intensive programme at Kuhmo Chamber Music. Each year, the artistic directors will select 2-3 promising chamber-music ensembles to participate in the programme. During the 2026 festival, instruction and guidance will be provided by Levon Chilingirian, Johannes Meissl and Meta4.

As part of the programme, the groups and their individual members will perform at concerts throughout the festival. So it is our great honour to introduce – straight from the Kuhmo chamber – the Karelia and Modulor string quartets!

Joseph Haydn (1732—1809):

String Quartet in F, Op. 50 No. 5 'Dream' (1787)

Karelia String Quartet

Benjamin Britten (1913—1976):

String Quartet No. 2 in C, Op. 36 (1945)

Modulor Quartet

FROM THE CHAMBER IS THE SUPPORTED WITH GENEROUS FUNDING FROM THE JENNY AND ANTTI WIHURI FOUNDATION.

Thursday 23.7.2026

12.30 Tuupala Primary School

Student Concert (admission free)

Students of the music courses

Thursday 23.7.2026

49. 15.00 Tuupala Primary School — €28/21

Brave Hinterland – Oulu2026

Leevi Madetoja (1887—1947):

Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 1 (1909)

Krishna Nagaraja (1975—):

Peripheries for string quartet (2026, commissioned by Kuhmo Chamber Music, premiere)

Meta4

THE COMPOSITION AND ITS WORLD PREMIERE ARE PART OF THE EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE YEAR CELEBRATIONS. THEY ARE PART OF THE Oulu2026 THEME "BRAVE HINTERLAND".

Valerie Coleman (1970—):

Danza from Concerto Afro-Cuban for wind quintet (2001)

Orsino Ensemble

Thursday 23.7.2026

50. 18.00 Kuhmo Arts Centre — €33/25

Pride

John Koenig’s work The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a collection of new words for different emotions. It seeks to shed light on the curious question of what it means to be human.

Mark Simpson (1988—):

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows for wind quintet (2024)

Orsino Ensemble

Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality, or the mere possibility of its being revealed, struck fear into those around him. The threat of a scandal was always lurking around the corner, a scandal that the composer’s circle – everyone from his family to the aristocracy – was keen to avoid. Tchaikovsky’s death gave rise to speculation and theories ranging from suicide to poisoning or the composer’s contracting cholera by accidentally drinking a glass of dirty water. While Tchaikovsky’s death is the subject of much fascination, sadly no one thought to ask him how he would have preferred to live.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840—1893):

String Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11 (1871)

Danel Quartet

Interval

Asta Hyvärinen (1963—):

Shingle-Twinkle for two violas (2005/2024)

Very often, those fighting for equality are themselves members of a minority group, sometimes several minorities at once. Ethel Smyth advocated for women’s suffrage and was in a relationship with another woman at a time when women doing ‘men’s work’ was always viewed with scepticism and suspicion. She was a brave, determined human-rights campaigner and an inspiration for many marginalised people living in the shadows of narrow-minded societal constraints.

Ethel Smyth (1858—1944):

Variations on Bonny Sweet Robin for flute, oboe and piano 'Ophelia's Song' (1927)

Thomas Adès (1971—):

Clarinet Quintet 'Alchymia' (2021)