INDEPENDENCE DAY CONCERT

Finland is 108 years old and the City of Lahti is 120 years old. The double celebration concert will combine a traditional Independence Day programme with orchestral works by Jean Sibelius, the key to the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s international popularity.

The incidental music and orchestral suite for the play King Christian II was one of the earliest works by Sibelius to gain international success. Around the same time, a suite of tableau music protesting against the ever-stricter constraints of the years of oppression was completed; its final movement, Finland Awakes, is now known as Finlandia.

For decades, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra has collaborated with musicians who have been successful in the Sibelius Violin Competition. The Independence Day concert features a soloist Otto Antikainen who reached the final of the International Jean Sibelius Competition in May.