OKKO KAMU 80 YEARS

Okko Kamu, who began his career as a phenomenally talented violinist, burst onto the world scene in 1969 when he won the first Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin. Since then, he has appeared with almost every top orchestra and opera company in the world. Kamu crowned his tenure as principal conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra with a recording of the complete Sibelius symphonies.

This spring Kamu celebrates his 80th birthday with his former orchestra. In his birthday concert he will focus on the most important landmarks of his career, Sibelius’s mystical youthful tone poem En saga and the Seventh Symphony, a testament to symphonic form that ends in a serene evening twilight.

Ossi Tanner, who is rapidly rising to the forefront of Finnish pianists, is already a familiar face as a soloist with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. Here he performs Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, the brightest jewel in the crown of romantic piano literature.