The 25-year-old Oulu Music Festival has prepared a number of treats for us in spring 2015. Prior to the event, OMF organises two jazz concerts in January and February, followed by Oulu All Star Big Band’s performance with the visiting star trombonist Nils Landgren in March 2015. Also, the festival will host Masterclasses for students of music, taught by celebrated Finnish and international musicians.
Nils Landgren to feature as a soloist for Oulu All Star Big Band
Oulu Music Festival turns 25 in spring 2015, but is not celebrating alone, as the festival will also see the 10th anniversary of the Oulu All Star Big Band. This occasion is marked in a special way, for the big band will be joined by one of the most successful European jazz and pop artists of the day, namely the Swedish trombonist Nils Landgren. His astonishing stylistic range comprises jazz, rock, soul, hip hop and big band music, and he has appeared on at least 500 albums by, for instance, such artists as Abba, The Crusaders, Eddie Harris, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Wyclef Jean and Herbie Hancock.
One of the biggest feathers on his cap is the group Funk Unit, with whom Landgren has toured festivals around the world since 1992. Without the funk genre, Landgren has proven his capability as a singer of ballads. He has acted as the Artistic Director of the Berlin Jazz Festival in 2001 and from 2008 to 2011. The programme of the concert will present Landgren’s many sides and his sovereign command of different genres. Tapio Maunuvaara will conduct Oulu All Star Big Band.
The concert will be opened with some rollicking and swingy 1950s Jump & Jive tunes by Screaming Jay & The Bones. We are in for some rhythm and blues and jazz classics and astonishing scat solos. On the vocals and trombone Jay Kortehisto (Leningrad Cowboys, Jimi Tenor), on the saxophone Pope Puolitaival (Leningrad Cowboys, Dallape, Jo Stance), on guitar Valtteri Pöyhönen (Dalindeo, Ricky Tick Big Band), on the drums Thomas Rönnholm (Laura Närhi, DDT) and on the bass Lasse Sirkko (Whistle Bait).
Sat 21 March at 9:00PM
SCREAMING JAY & THE BONES
NILS LANDGREN & OULU ALL STAR BIG BAND
SuperPark Areena (Tyrnäväntie 16, Oulu)
Pre-tickets 28/24 €, at the door 32 €.
Pre-tickets for customers with Oulun Energia Pohjoista voimaa shopper card 24 € (not available online).
Pre-tickets available at Lippupalvelu, without service fees at Oulu 10 shops and Valve box office.
Screaming Jay & The Bones:
Jay Kortehisto vocals and trombone
Petri ´Pope' Puolitaival sax
Valtteri Pöyhönen guitar
Lasse Sirkko bass
Thomas Rönnholm drums
Nils Landgren trombone and vocals
Oulu All Star Big Band
Tapio Maunuvaara conductor
A wide variety of Masterclasses on offer for students
Oulu Music Festival organises international Masterclasses in classical voice, violin, alto violin, piano and jazz and popular music in weeks 11 and 12. The Masterclasses are aimed at advanced-level students and passive participants. The voice class is taught by Soile Isokoski, the violin by Jennifer Frautschi, the alto violin by Anna Kreetta Gribajcevic and the piano by Paavali Jumppanen. The teachers of jazz and popular music Masterclasses are Nils Landgren and Marzi Nyman, and the pop and jazz voice is taught by the French vocalist Cyrille Aimée. Some of the teachers also perform at the festival. The deadline for application is 16 January 2015.
Soile Isokoski, the teacher of the voice Masterclass, is one of the most acclaimed sopranos in an international scale. She has been successful in countless competitions and performed at the biggest opera houses of the globe. This multi-award winning singer has been awarded with the Sibelius Medal in 1995 and 2007, the Finnish Cultural Foundation prize in 2001, the Pro Finlandia Medal in 2002 and the State of Finland Music Prize in 2005. The Vienna State Opera granted her the title of the Kammersängerin in 2008. She has taught at Oulu University of Applied Sciences since autumn 2014.
The Avery Fisher- and Grammy-winning Jennifer Frautschi teaches the violin Masteclass. She belongs to the most interesting and versatile violin artists of her generation. Some of the highlights of the past season are performances with St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Tucson Symphony and the Symphony Orchestras of Alabama, Arkansas, Belo Horizonte, Chattanooga, Phoenix and Toledo. Her instrument, a Stradivarius known by the name Ex-Cadiz, dates back to 1722.
Anna Kreetta Gribajcevic, the alto violin Masterclass teacher, trained at Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and in Saarbrücken and Berlin in Germany. Gribajcevic, the solo alto violinist for Sinfonia Lahti and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, has performed at several Finnish and international festivals and premiered many pieces by Finnish composers. She is currently an artistic planner of the Omenapuun varjossa chamber music festival, organised in Nummi-Pusula.
Paavali Jumppanen teaches the piano Masterclass and is widely considered to be one of the most active and successful Finnish pianists of his generation. He won the Maj Lind Piano Competition in 1994 and the Young Concert Artists' International Auditions competition in New York in 2000. Last year, his love for the Viennese Classicism took him to Harvard University’s department of musicology to write about Beethoven’s piano sonatas. In addition to lecturing and giving solo concerts, Jumppanen appears frequently with renowned European orchestras and is a regular soloist for the most notable Finnish orchestras. He was given the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation Prize in honour of his contribution to the Finnish cultural life.
The jazz and popular music Masterclass is taught, in addition to Nils Landgren, by Cyrille Aimée, whose fascination with the gipsy culture was sparked at an early age. After performing as a street musician in her youth, she ended up at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2007, where she won the main prize in the singing contest. Nowadays, Aimée is one of the most sought-after jazz vocalists in the United States.
Finally, guitarist Marzi Nyman instructs in jazz and pop with Landgren and Aimée. Nyman is known as a musician who has little respect for genre shackles, and it is no surprise that the countless musical projects he has been involved in are not easy to pigeonhole. Nyman has also made music for films and television. Since 2012, he has worked as the conductor of Espoo Big Band, who are currently working on a new album due to be released in 2015.
More info on www.omj.fi/mestarikurssit
Jazz concerts in January and February
Before the festival, Oulu Music Festival and Jazz20 ry co-organise two jazz nights. At the end of January Ravintola Rauhala will play host to the concert of the Polish-Latvian-Finnish Olli Estola Polyeuropean Band, whose repertoire consists of jazz standards, played with a fresh touch. In February, the feels will get altogether different when Elektro GT invades the venue 45 Special. Composed of musicians from different fronts of Finnish music, Elektro GT’s brand of jazz is strongly tinted with electronic and progressive vibes. They released their debut on Texicalli Records in autumn 2014, which was followed by gigs at the Jazz Finland Festival and the Tampere Jazz Happening.
Sat 31 Jan at 7:00PM
OLLI ESTOLA POLYEUROPEAN BAND
Ravintola Rauhala (Mannenkatu 4, Oulu)
Tickets 15/10 €
Artur Tuznik piano
Karlis Auzins sax
Jaakko Konttila bass
Olli Estola drums
Wed 11 Feb at 8:00PM
ELEKTRO GT
45 Special (Saaristonkatu 12, Oulu)
Tickets 15/10 €
K-18
Mikko Hassinen drums and electronics
Kalevi Louhivuori trumpet
Aki Rissanen keys
Timo Kämäräinen guitar
Heikki Laine bass
Oulu Music Festival takes place 7 – 22 March 2015.
The programme will be available in its entirety on 8 Jan 2015.