Jazz Finland Live

Beatbox & Cupola brings a rhythmic world to Jazz-Espa’s Children’s Saturday, where the traditional roles of instruments are turned upside down! In the duo of Felix Zenger and Lauri Wuolio, rhythms are created with the mouth, and melodies are played on a drum. This preview of Konserttikeskus’s upcoming repertoire introduces two unique and distinct instruments: beatboxing—rhythm produced by the human voice—and the cupola, a melodic metallic percussion instrument. In this inspiring and energetic yet occasionally near-meditative performance, the audience also gets to learn the basics of beatboxing. 

Top masters of their instruments, Wuolio and Zenger demonstrate that music can be made in one’s own way and from one’s own perspectives. Zenger has performed worldwide with stars such as Pharrell Williams, and his most popular YouTube video has nearly 40 million views. Lauri Wuolio is one of the most internationally renowned cupola players; his albums, released under the name Kumea Sound, have been streamed over 50 million times. 

Felix Zenger – beatbox 
Lauri Wuolio – cupola 

The concert is organized in collaboration with Concert Centre Finland. 

Jazz-Espa is a city festival focusing on Finnish jazz music produced by the Finnish Jazz Association from 27 July to 1 August 2026. The event aims to present a diverse and current range of top names in Finnish jazz and young future talents to a wide target audience. The concerts are free, accessible and suitable for the whole family. More information at jazzespa.fi and on social media @suomenjazzliitto.

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The energetic ZikiZiki family orchestra, appearing at Jazz-Espa as a trio, takes listeners on a humorous journey into the diverse world of rhythmic music in the company of ants, monkeys, and chickens! The concert offers an experiential afternoon where learning and shared joy go hand in hand.  

The band’s vision is to create high-quality and versatile music primarily for children, but in a way that audiences of all ages can enjoy. Composed and written by singer Elina Brooks, the songs combine catchy rhythms, playfulness, and swing. The performance also features a few gems by Kaarina Helakisa and Jukka Jarvola from the Posetiivi recording.

Elina Brooks – vocals  
Veikki Virkajärvi – guitar, backing vocals  
Kalle Ylitalo – bass, backing vocals 

Jazz-Espa is a city festival focusing on Finnish jazz music produced by the Finnish Jazz Association from 27 July to 1 August 2026. The event aims to present a diverse and current range of top names in Finnish jazz and young future talents to a wide target audience. The concerts are free, accessible and suitable for the whole family. More information at jazzespa.fi and on social media @suomenjazzliitto.

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Tickets 17,50 € / 35 €

In honor of the Jazz Finland 100 anniversary, Nina Mya has put together a mix of Finnish and American jazz that showcases the various phases and styles of the genre. In her own artistic expression, she blends the roots of Black music - jazz, soul, and gospel - with Scandinavian melancholy and sincerity.

Nina Mya brings the international spirit of jazz singing to the stage, along with a selection of Finnish gems, accompanied by pianist Henri Mäntylä. Nina Mya is known for her emotional interpretations, and in this concert she also highlights the legacy of her great jazz singing role models.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Tickets 35 €

Kaisa Mäensivu Quartet
New Orleans Stompers/Kimmo Leppälä

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Bassist Antti Lötjönen, recipient of the Finnish Jazz Federation’s Yrjö Award 2024 and one of Finland’s most respected jazz musicians, joins forces with guitarist Kalle Kalima, a Berlin-based artist with a strong career in Central Europe. In the music of Lötjönen and Kalima, the experience of thousands of concerts on stages around the world meets the freshness of a new collaboration.

In autumn 2024, the duo recorded the album “Stings, Bites and Scratches,” released by Eclipse Music on January 3, 2025. The duo embarked on a 13-concert album release tour in early 2025. Both live and on record, the music presents a boundless and imaginative journey into the core of jazz and improvised music.

Concert review:
“The album must be excellent, as the concert was absolutely fantastic… This ‘march,’ and everything else created by Lötjönen and Kalima in the concert, was simply astonishing.”
– Pentti Ronkanen, Suomijazz

Album review:
“Double bassist Antti Lötjönen and guitarist Kalle Kalima bow to no one… from clarity to roughness, the journey unfolds with a wild grin. The improvised layers resound unrestrained.”
– Juha Seitz, Ilkka-Pohjalainen

Stings, Bites and Scratches stresses the immediate affinity of these gifted musicians. The music flows patiently and organically, highlighting the original and unorthodox rhythmic and melodic sensibility of Lötjönen and Kalima. Their intimate, conversational dynamics often mimic playful and inventive hide-and-seek games, emphasising their strong-minded voices and often their eccentric sense of humour.
– Eyal Herauveni, salt peanuts*

Photo: Sakari Puhakka

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden and The Finnish Music Foundation.

The concert is part of the Jazz in Finland 100 Anniversary.

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Lauri Kallio is a versatile music professional whose work can be found on around forty releases. Kallio’s second album, Turtles, Cats and Other Creatures, was released in 2025.

Lauri Kallio – guitar
Adele Sauros – saxophones and flute
Natalia Castrillón – harp
Ville Rauhala – bass
Joonas Leppänen – drums

Flame Jazz Summer Live on Wednesdays at 6 pm at Cathedral Park Terrace, free entry. As the Flame Jazz Summer Live concerts are held outdoors, in case of rainy weather, the concert of the day may be rescheduled. Any changes will be announced on social media channels and websites by Church Park Terrace and Flame Jazz. 

Open event

Free entry

UMO's jazz jams return to the summer terrace of Konepaja Biergarten for their sixth consecutive summer – free entry!

The jazz jams are a musical think tank where new ideas are created by building on the past. In summer 2026, the jams take on a special celebratory atmosphere as Finland marks 100 years of jazz and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra concludes its 50th anniversary season.

The evening begins with a performance by the house band at 6:30 PM, followed by the jams themselves. Musicians and music enthusiasts emerging from the audience form spontaneous ensembles where nothing is predetermined – no one knows what will be played or with whom. The house band lays the foundation, but the direction of the evening is shaped through interaction between performers and the audience. That is exactly what makes jazz jams such a unique and vibrant part of jazz culture.

Throughout the summer, audiences will experience themed evenings and unique ensembles bringing together musicians from UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, other jazz professionals, and rising talents from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The jams foster the development of jazz music, connect generations, and create space for new voices.

The outdoor terrace of Konepaja Biergarten (Bruno Granholminkuja 1, Helsinki) offers a relaxed summer setting to enjoy music, good company, a wide selection of drinks, and occasionally also food stalls.

The jams are organized in collaboration with UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Konepaja Biergarten, the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

Open event

Tickets in advance 26 €. At the gate 29 €.

Razzborg once again invites jazz lovers to gather in a unique historic setting, where top-quality music meets the magic of a summer evening and the atmosphere of Raseborg Castle. Expect an unforgettable night filled with swing, great ambience, and memorable moments in celebration of Finnish jazz.

This summer’s line-up features Kari Antila Quartet & Elna Romberg, Lassi Friman Quartet, Bo i Billnäs Orkester and Ite.

Come enjoy the music, the atmosphere, and a beautiful summer evening at Razzborg.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Pärt & Songs was born from this insight: what seems fragile can contain something immense; the points of friction between materials, forms, and memories are fertile. In the hands of Italian composer and pianist Roberto Negro, Arvo Pärt’s piano works become a source, an underground current.

Arvo Pärt is one of the most significant figures in contemporary music and holds a unique position in the global music world. His career, marked by profound aesthetic ruptures, has transformed the way we listen to sound, time, and silence by opening a musical space grounded in resonance, simplicity, and essentials.

In Pärt & Songs, Pärt’s oeuvre becomes a resonant space where new compositional approaches emerge. Roberto Negro approaches the work with a sensitive and personal touch: “There is something incomparably true in Arvo Pärt’s music. Something crystal clear. A combination of calm, silence, strength, and contrast.” Negro adds: “I am searching for continuity, for breath. I am looking for a way in which music can transform its shape seamlessly.”

Roberto Negro’s career is defined by a unique blend of contemporary music and improvisation, from piano solo to large ensembles. His music carries a narrative and visual dimension, supported by a poetic quality in which his Italian heritage subtly appears. This award-winning visionary has established himself as one of the most original and active musicians in French jazz. Negro’s collaborations with saxophonist Emile Parisien have taken him on tour across Europe in various ensembles, including Les Métanuits, an adaptation for saxophone and piano of György Ligeti’s first string quartet. Among his long-term collaborators are also violinist Théo Ceccaldi and drummer Michele Rabbia. In 2023, the renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain premiered his work Newborn. Negro, classically trained, born in Turin and raised in Kinshasa, Congo, studied jazz in France, first in Chambéry and then in Paris.

Photo: Jean-Pascal Retel

Tour support: AJC, Spedidam
In collaboration with: Helsinki Jazz & Vapaat äänet

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki and Svenska Kulturfonden.

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The Kasper Halttunen 5tet performs compositions by drummer-composer Kasper Halttunen in the spirit of modern jazz. The band’s sound blends the soft interplay of vibraphone and alto saxophone with a traditional piano trio.

Mikko Antila – vibraphone
Ilmari Rönkä – saxophones and flute
Juho Valjakka – piano
Antti Ahoniemi – double bass
Kasper Halttunen – drums and compositions

Flame Jazz Summer Live on Wednesdays at 6 pm at Cathedral Park Terrace, free entry. As the Flame Jazz Summer Live concerts are held outdoors, in case of rainy weather, the concert of the day may be rescheduled. Any changes will be announced on social media channels and websites by Church Park Terrace and Flame Jazz. 

Open event

Free entry

UMO's jazz jams return to the summer terrace of Konepaja Biergarten for their sixth consecutive summer – free entry!

The jazz jams are a musical think tank where new ideas are created by building on the past. In summer 2026, the jams take on a special celebratory atmosphere as Finland marks 100 years of jazz and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra concludes its 50th anniversary season.

The evening begins with a performance by the house band at 6:30 PM, followed by the jams themselves. Musicians and music enthusiasts emerging from the audience form spontaneous ensembles where nothing is predetermined – no one knows what will be played or with whom. The house band lays the foundation, but the direction of the evening is shaped through interaction between performers and the audience. That is exactly what makes jazz jams such a unique and vibrant part of jazz culture.

Throughout the summer, audiences will experience themed evenings and unique ensembles bringing together musicians from UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, other jazz professionals, and rising talents from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The jams foster the development of jazz music, connect generations, and create space for new voices.

The outdoor terrace of Konepaja Biergarten (Bruno Granholminkuja 1, Helsinki) offers a relaxed summer setting to enjoy music, good company, a wide selection of drinks, and occasionally also food stalls.

The jams are organized in collaboration with UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, Konepaja Biergarten, the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Singing till the songs come home
Sanni Orasmaa: voice and piano

Villa Hakasalmi was once the home of Aurora Karamzin — a house that pulsed with hospitality and took every arrival into open arms. Tonight, singer Sanni Orasmaa sits down at the grand piano. The concert has a frame but no script: the program takes shape around those who have come, its substance rising from conversation and encounter.

For more than thirty years Orasmaa has carried her voice from the stages of New York to the concert halls of Europe and back to the Finnish landscape. In solo, voice and piano wind into a single, freely breathing arc: familiar songs taken apart and rebuilt, stripped bare and present, a little different in shape each time.

Jazz came to Finland as a guest that was made our own. Orasmaa’s solo continues that same journey: what was carried from far away is sung home.
“Distinctive, open and soulful” — Helsingin Sanomat
“Exceptionally fine” — Jazzrytmit
“Mesmerizing sweetness” — DownBeat

Singer and jazz musician Sanni Orasmaa is one of the pioneers of vocal jazz and jazz pedagogy in Finland. Known for her versatility and gift for improvisation, she has collaborated in Finland with RinneRadio and Mika Pohjola, among others, and internationally with names including Ron McClure and Charlie Hunter. Orasmaa lived in New York from 2000 to 2007, building a career in clubs and festivals across three continents. Alongside her teaching at Finnish institutions, she has taught in the jazz department of the Brooklyn Conservatory and at several universities abroad.

Photo: Hanna Anttila

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden and The Finnish Music Foundation.

The concert is part of the Jazz in Finland 100 Anniversary

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Led by drummer Arttu Huopainen, South–East Corner brings fresh jazz energy to the stage, blending jazz traditions with influences rooted in their home region. The ensemble’s versatile saxophone sounds, swinging double bass, and dynamic drums create a sound that is airy yet intense.

Jimi Ahlroos – saxophones
Casimir Ekman – saxophones
Antti Ahoniemi – double bass
Arttu Huopainen – drums, compositions

Flame Jazz Summer Live on Wednesdays at 6 pm at Cathedral Park Terrace, free entry. As the Flame Jazz Summer Live concerts are held outdoors, in case of rainy weather, the concert of the day may be rescheduled. Any changes will be announced on social media channels and websites by Church Park Terrace and Flame Jazz. 

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Free entry

RSB – Roamin’ Street Band is an 11‑musician, two‑vocalist supergroup from the Pirkanmaa region, bringing the authentic jazz energy of the streets of New Orleans to events. The band’s captivating second-line street beat and swinging, cheerful sound sweep along even those audiences for whom jazz or blues wouldn’t normally be the first choice. At RSB’s shows, no one is left cold – get ready for a mood that will make your feet start dancing! 

RSB has created a recurring event in Tampere called Gumbo Club, where the band performs once a month for free at the Public House Huurre restaurant. On club nights, the venue serves spicy gumbo typical of the Mississippi Delta region, and local dancers take the floor with Lindy Hop and other dances that perfectly match the music.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Kanvas is an ensemble of young jazz musicians that boldly blends the sensitivity of jazz and pop with diverse soundscapes and poignant storytelling. The band’s pianist-composer Andrea Martín draws inspiration from the world around her and the beauty of the Finnish language.

Siina Suutarinen – vocals
Andrea Martín – piano & compositions
Kasper Halttunen – drums
Aaron Koskelainen – double bass
Oiva Haapamäki – trumpet, flygel horn
Oona Mattsson – altosaxophone, flute

Flame Jazz Summer Live on Wednesdays at 6 pm at Cathedral Park Terrace, free entry. As the Flame Jazz Summer Live concerts are held outdoors, in case of rainy weather, the concert of the day may be rescheduled. Any changes will be announced on social media channels and websites by Church Park Terrace and Flame Jazz. 

Open event

Tickets 25 €

Jazz music on the banks of the Kymijoki River! A great combination of skillful interpretation of jazz music and energetic improvisation. Organized by the Kouvola city's cultural services in cooperation with the Ankkapurha Industrial Museum Foundation and StoraEnso's Anjalankoski mills, as well as numerous creative companies and associations. Internationally and nationally renowned jazz musicians will take the stage in a unique setting.

The artistic director of the event is Doctor of Music, saxophonist Jari Perkiömäki.

_{In 2026, it will be 100 years since jazz symbolically arrived in Finland with the ship Andania. The year thus marks a historic centenary celebration for Finnish jazz: Jazz in Finland 100. The anniversary highlights Finnish jazz and its artists both in Finland and abroad, celebrating jazz as part of Finland’s cultural heritage. The Jazz in Finland 100 campaign is coordinated by the Finnish Jazz Federation.}

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Known for her open-minded approach to music-making and her compelling use of voice, Selma Savolainen is one of the brightest stars of Finnish jazz. Helsingin Sanomat has described her as an artist who has elevated Finnish vocal jazz to a new level. Her English-language compositions are marked by a captivating blend of modern jazz and alternative singer-songwriter tradition. Savolainen’s debut album Horror Vacui won the Jazz Emma Award in 2024, and in the shade, released in spring 2026, has received widespread critical acclaim.

Helsinki-based pianist and composer Toomas Keski-Säntti has long collaborated with Savolainen and appears on two of her albums. He is also known from several Finnish jazz ensembles, including OK:KO, Adele Sauros Quartet and Jukka Perko PreBoppers. He studied at the Sibelius Academy and the Manhattan School of Music and has performed at clubs and festivals across Europe as well as in New York. Keski-Säntti’s debut solo album Unearth was released in 2025.

The duo of Savolainen and Keski-Säntti performs a program of their jointly composed material as well as pieces from Savolainen’s albums. The concert will also feature selected jazz standards.

Photo: Severi Uusitalo

The concert is supported by City of Helsinki, Svenska Kulturfonden and The Finnish Music Foundation.

The concert is part of the Jazz in Finland 100 Anniversary.

Open event