© Kaupo Kikkas

Opening Concert: Arvo Pärt’s Masterpieces

Helsinki Music Centre Choir
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Nils Schweckendiek, conductor
Janne Teivainen, visual design and video art

In 2025, the renowned Estonian composer Arvo Pärt celebrates his 90th birthday. The opening concert of Urkuyö & Aaria Festival honours this occasion by presenting some of Pärt's finest choral and orchestral works. In 1976, Pärt developed his unique musical style, tintinnabuli (“little bells”), which opened new horizons for contemporary music. Beneath the seemingly simple surface of his music lies a strict structure, profound spirituality, and powerful emotional expression. Listeners are invited to focus on each sound and notice even the smallest changes — much like observing the slow, yet constant, transformations in nature.

The concert programme features choral and orchestral works written or revised by Pärt over the past 25 years. The evening culminates in Adam’s Lament, one of Pärt’s most significant works, based on a prose text by Monk Silouan of Mount Athos (1866–1938).

"Pain is a lack of love. But this pain is a healthy pain. It makes healing possible."
— Arvo Pärt

Duration approx. 70 minutes, no intermission.
Tickets €15–45 (sold by Helsinki Music Centre)