Organ Night & Aria

The atmospheric summer evening concerts of the Organ Night & Aria- festival will take place this year in both Helsinki and Espoo. The festival brings together the finest gems of classical music, ranging from vocal and organ music to orchestral and chamber music. The 2025 festival season runs from June 3 to August 28. The festival's Artistic Director is tenor Tuomas Katajala.

Founded in 1986, the festival has grown from an organ music series within the parish's music work into its current form — a respected and cherished summer-long music festival. The Artistic Directors of the festival have been:

  • Organist and Director Musices Matti Vainio (1986–2005), founder of the festival

  • Conductor and composer Kari Tikka (2005–2011)

  • Conductor and choral director Hannu Norjanen (2011–2016)

  • Pianist Erkki Korhonen (2016–2022)

  • Opera singer Tuomas Katajala (since autumn 2022)

Over the years, Organ Night & Aria- festival has featured more than 600 international and Finnish artists. The diverse line-up has included opera singers, organists, pianists, choirs, vocal ensembles, and orchestras.

The festival is an important part of Espoo's cultural life and the summer music offering of Southern Finland. Organ Night & Aria- festival is organized by Organ Night & Aria Association. The festival has engaged in artistic collaborations with several significant cultural institutions, including Tapiola Sinfonietta, Espoo City Theatre, and the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. The main supporters of the festival are the City of Espoo, Espoo Cathedral Parish, Esbo svenska församling, Espoo Parish Union, and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Organ Night & Aria is a member of Finland Festivals.

Board of the Organ Night & Aria Association 2025

Hannele Eklund, Chair
Jaana Tuomi, Vice Chair
Mikko Hannuksela
Eero Karjalainen
Petri Koivusalo
Hannes Lohi
Kimmo Metsä
Johanna Arantola-Hattab, Deputy Member

Artistic Director Tuomas Katajala

"A singer cannot perform the same “young lover”- role for their entire career. One must test their limits and sense the direction in which they are developing."

These are the words of tenor Tuomas Katajala, one of Finland’s most internationally successful singers of today. He is known for his exceptional versatility, evident in his wide repertoire ranging from opera roles to oratorio, concert works, and lieder.

Katajala’s international career took a significant leap after his acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in 2015. Since then, he has performed leading tenor roles at some of the world's most prestigious opera houses, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Komische Oper in Berlin, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Hamburg State Opera, Theater an der Wien, National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg, Seattle Opera, The Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Oslo Opera, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, and the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Among his recent roles are the title role in Lohengrin at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Erik in The Flying Dutchman in Beijing, Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz in Leipzig, and Pollux in Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae in Genoa. In the summer of 2025, Katajala will perform as Grigori in Boris Godunov at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

As a concert singer, Katajala has appeared not only in Finland but also at renowned venues such as London’s Royal Albert Hall, La Scala in Milan, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as at numerous music festivals across Europe and Japan. His oratorio and concert repertoire includes over 100 works, featuring composers such as Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Dvořák, Mahler, Stravinsky, and Britten.

Throughout his career, Katajala has worked with esteemed conductors such as Fabio Luisi, Peter Schreier, Kent Nagano, Enrique Mazzola, Claus Peter Flor, Andrey Boreyko, Pablo Heras-Casado, Tugan Sokhiev, Antonello Manacorda, Matthias Pintscher, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Klaus Mäkelä, Tarmo Peltokoski, Sakari Oramo, Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Susanna Mälkki, Dalia Stasevska, John Storgårds, Nicholas Collon, and Dima Slobodeniouk.

Katajala has been awarded the Karita Mattila and Martti Talvela scholarships, the Häme Regional Arts Prize, the Beniamino Gigli Award, and the Sibelius Birthplace Medal. He also won the international Musica Sacra singing competition in Rome.

Tuomas Katajala has served as the Artistic Director of the Urkuyö ja Aaria Festival since 2022.