At the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in the spring of 2020, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra made a video combining individual recordings by more than sixty musicians of Sibelius’s Finlandia, which attracted considerable attention both in Finland and internationally. In the spring of 2021, the orchestra will continue with the Finlandia theme by taking part on a corporate basis in the Virtual Finlandia -hiihto event. The orchestra would also like to invite all friends of music and sport to join the orchestra’s team (with the name ‘Sinfonia Lahti’). Principal conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, principal guest conductor Anja Bihlmaier and principal conductor designate Dalia Stasevska are also members of the team.

The orchestra is keen to promote the well-being of its members through this skiing event. In the spirit of its ‘Carbon-Neutral Lahti Symphony Orchestra’ project, the orchestra would also like to draw attention to the great opportunities for sports in nature in its home town (the current European Green Capital) and also to the work being done there to combat climate change, so that snowy winters can still be experienced in the years to come.

You can also participate in this skiing event on social media by sharing pictures of your virtual skiing achievement with the hashtags #SKIfonia and #VirtualFinlandia and by tagging Sinfonia Lahti in the picture. This picture material is distributed further via the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s social media accounts.

Please note that Virtual skiing is not a competition. The event can be completed with sports of your liking like skiing, running or cycling. Only sky is the limit!For distances, you can choose a shorter option of 10-20 km or a longer one of 30-65 km. Read more

You can register to the Virtual Finlandia -hiihto event from here

Various forms of online content have played a significant part in the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s work since the coronavirus epidemic interrupted the orchestra’s normal concert activities. The online content produced by the orchestra has already been viewed around 800,000 times in total. The largest single view count among the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s spring online productions is for the recording of Sibelius’s Finlandia, released in April 2020, in which the orchestral players recorded their soundtracks at home. By mid-January 2021 this recording, published on various social media platforms, had amassed a total of more than 365,000 views in two versions (one together with the Laulupuu Choir).

Photo: The musicians of Sinfonia Lahti Hannaliisa Pitkäpaasi, Anna Rinta-Rahko and Katariina Ruokonen are preparing to the Virtual Finlandia-hiihto.