Category: News

A warm welcome to an atmospheric autumn concert featuring the comforting sounds of Bernard Crusell, Krzysztof Penderecki and Nordic folk music!

The concert features the Korsholm Quartet and Pontus Grans, familiar faces from the Vaasa City Orchestra.

With this concert, Korsholm Music Festival wishes to thank you for the past year and offer a moment of musical warmth, strength and inspiration for the winter ahead.

The concert lasts approximately one hour without an intermission, and admission is free.

A warm welcome to all!

Join us in Helsinki on 28 November and experience one of Asia’s leading symphony orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the soloist Martin Helmchen, piano!

The orchestra is led by its principal conductor, Vaasa-born Tarmo Peltokoski (26), who also plays the piano in the concert. The Tagesspiegel newspaper has described Peltokoski as a ‘talent of the century’. He works actively with several leading European orchestras and has also made acclaimed recordings with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

The HK Phil will be performing at the Music Hall in Helsinki on Saturday 28 November at 7.00 pm as part of its European tour. The concert will last approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Programme

Yao Chen: Waltz of the Rolling Giants
Camille Saint-Saëns: The Carnival of the Animals for two pianos and orchestra
Richard Wagner: The Ring – An Orchestral Adventure (arr. Henk de Vlieger, 1991)

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1947 under the name Sino-British Orchestra and became a professional orchestra in 1974. Today, it is regarded as one of Asia’s leading symphony orchestras.

The orchestra has gained international recognition for, amongst other things, its recording of Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung and for its collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon. In 2019, the HK Phil became the first Asian orchestra to be awarded the prestigious ‘Orchestra of the Year’ award by Grammophone.

Tarmo Peltokoski took up the post as chief conductor of the orchestra for the 2026/27 season. He is also artistic director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as honorary conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra.

Member prices

Members of the Korsholm Music Festival can book either a concert ticket only or a package including a ticket and hotel accommodation:

Concert ticket: €70 per person

Ticket + accommodation at Hotel Presidentti 28–29 November:

• shared double room: €172 per person
• single room: €227 per person

Breakfast is included in the hotel price.

Concert tickets are for seats in the stalls, sections D2–4.

Booking

Binding bookings must be made by 15 October 2026 at the latest:

Monica Johnson
johnsonmons@gmail.com
tel. 050 911 33 49

Journey to Helsinki

Each participant is responsible for booking their own travel to and from Helsinki.

Examples of train connections:

Vaasa–Helsinki 28 November: 10.35–14.39

Helsinki–Vaasa 29 November: 15.20–19.10

Sample prices as at 23 September 2026: pensioner €40.60 per person, standard price €57.80 per person, return ticket.

Join us on the members’ trip to Helsinki for a world-class concert experience!

In addition to the traditional Music Festival, during summer 2026 we are publishing content under the project Classical Hits Different, which focuses on producing content about classical music from generation Z’s perspective. Classical Hits Different can be seen particularly in TikTok and as a podcast (the podcast and its platforms will be published later), but also in Instagram and Facebook. The project’s first posts can already be found at Korsholm Music Festival’s social media platforms!

The project is coordinated by the Music Festival’s Producer Julia Rima, and the content is created by the Project Summer Associate Marie Kautto.

Classical Hits Different is a developmental project by Korsholm Music Festival, and aims to create content about classical music to generation Z in social media and as a podcast. The project has been granted 3857 € of the Europenian Union LEADER financial assistance, which finances 70% of the projects total costs.

This year, the festival continues its popular initiative of offering free bus transport to nearly all of the concerts taking place outside Vaasa.

On three of the departures, a guide will join the journey. During the trip, you will either receive an introduction to the music you are about to hear or learn fascinating historical facts about the destination. The concert experience begins already on the bus.

All buses depart from Vaasa City Hall.

The buses depart as following:

July 23th, Opening Concert: at 18:30

July 24th, Idyl: at 17:15, with guid

July 25th, Carmen Y María de Buenos Aires: at 14:00, with guid – Please note! There is an option to hop off on the way back in order to attend the concert in Replot Church.

July 26th, Re:Vision: at 14:20

July 27th, Rodeo & Rhapsody (Vähäkyrö): at 17:10, with guid

Transportation back to Vaasa City Hall after the end of each concert.

From 22–29 July 2026, the festival invites you to a week of musical encounters under the theme Across the Atlantic. This year’s edition draws inspiration from North and South America, bringing it into dialogue with the European classical music tradition.

The theme is reflected in both the repertoire and the featured artists. This year’s composer-in-residence is the Korean-American composer Nicky Sohn, an internationally acclaimed voice in contemporary classical music. Her expressive and energetic works form a red thread throughout the festival.

The festival opens on 23 July with the concert From the New World. Vaasa City Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Gustavsson, with soloists Jan-Erik Gustafsson and Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, will perform a world premiere alongside Dvořák’s beloved Ninth Symphony. The final concert, Romeo & Juliet, on 29 July features the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Kasmir Uusitupa. The programme includes works by Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams and Barber, as well as Nicky Sohn’s lyrical piano concerto If You Love for Beauty.

From Baroque to Soul, from Churches to Club Stages

This year’s programme offers a rich musical diversity, including:

• Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in the Fest Concert with violin virtuoso Alissa Margulis
• String quartets by Samuel Barber, Dvořák and Stenhammar
• A meditative Late Night Bach in Vaasa Orthodox Church
• Tango and opera classics in Carmen y María de Buenos Aires
• Folk music, klezmer and ragtime in the relaxed club concert Roots
• A soul evening with returning hometown artist Michael Bleu and Laitakaupungin orkesteri
• A unique collaboration between Vasas flora och fauna and Artemis Wind Quintet

In addition, the festival presents the family performance A Day at the Circus!, masterclass concerts featuring tomorrow’s stars, and performances in distinctive venues such as the Car and Motor Museum and the staircase of Vaasa City Hall.

The festival is EcoCompass-certified for the fourth consecutive year and is committed to sustainable practices. Free buses depart from Vaasa City Hall to several concerts, some including bilingual guided tours. Free childcare is also available during selected concerts.

In addition to its artistic theme, Korsholm Music Festival has a yearly undertheme about a sustainability topic. With the help of the undertheme we want to take part in social dialogue as well as reflect on and further improve our actions. 

The 2026 undertheme is AI & Sustainability.

AI’s Environmental Impact

The use of AI affects our environment with is energy and water consumption:

• One Google search (without AI) consumes 0,3 kilowatt-hours of energy, whereas a search with ChatGPT consumes 2,9 kilowatt-hours, which is almost 10 times more.
• A chain of circa 20-50 questions and responses with ChatGPT (GPT-3) consumes approximately half a liter of water.
• According to a late 2025 analysis every video produced with the Sora 2 AI model consumes 1 kilowatt-hour of energy, 4 liters of water and produces 466 grams of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Source: Akepa. January 2026. Environmental impact of generative AI – 30+ stats & facts. Web page. Referenced 19.5.2026. https://thesustainableagency.com/blog/environmental-impact-of-generative-ai/

These sums can feel small, but as AI becomes a routine in the everyday lives of millions of people, the emissions start quickly piling up.

Avoiding AI Has Not Negatively Affected the Festival Production

This year the production of Korsholm Music Festival has set an aim to use AI as little as possible. In practice it looks, for example, like this:

• In Google searches the AI summary is filtered out
• The Music Festival’s communication and its translations are created with minimal help from AI
• The graphic and visual elements are self-created or commissioned from a graphic designer. The graphic look of the 2026 program is designed by Andrei Palomäki.
• When using stock photography, pictures created by AI are filtered out when there is an option to do so.

Results:

• The production of the Music Festival has proceeded in its usual schedule
• The most direct impact can be seen in translating texts, which is clearly slower without AI. However, the time spent in translating is a good investment, since the production team will need fluent Finnish, Swedish and English also in situations, where relying on AI is not possible. Translating without AI maintains language proficiency effectively.
• Searching and viewing information without Google’s AI summary is more critical, which is useful as misinformation becomes more and more common.

It Is Better To Do Something Than Nothing At All

The nature of the work done at Korsholm Music Festival allows avoiding AI. That is not a realistic option in everyone’s jobs, and it is not our intention to act as moralists.

Instead, we would like to take part in the discussion on this topic and ask, is AI truly, in all areas, as indispensable a tool as it is made out to be?

It is not always possible to avoid AI in the Music Festival’s production, either: in many digital tools AI has already been integrated as a fixed part of the platform without an option to filter it out. 

As in all environmental work, however, imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. If you can only partly do something, it is still better than not doing it at all. 

“Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”

– Harry S Truman

Would you like to come to Korsholm Music Festival, but are in a tight financial situation, and can therefore not buy tickets? Korsholm Music Festival is a part of The Wellbeing Services County of Ostrobothnia’s Kaikukortti-network. If you have Kaikukortti, you can get tickets to our concerts free of charge. If you have children or grandchildren that are under 18 years old, you can get tickets also for them, when you are going to a concert together. 

With Kaikukortti you can get tickets to all of Korsholm Music Festival’s concerts, apart from the concert Carmen y María de Buenos Aires, which was exceptionally almost fully booked already before Korsholm Music Festival’s Kaikukortti tickets were released. There are 10 Kaikukortti tickets available per concert.

In order to get a Kaikukortti ticket you need to make a reservation at info@kmf.fi, and collect the ticket by showing your Kaikukortti at Korsholm Music Festival’s office at Vaasa City Hall (Senaatinkatu 1, 65100 Vaasa), within 3 days of making the reservation.

During the festival itself 22.-29.7.2026 you can come directly to the festival office’s tickets sales booth at Vaasa City hall for Kaikukortti tickets, without reserving in advance.

In addition to us there are ca. 30 Kaikukortti destinations in the The Wellbeing Services County of Ostrobothnia’s Kaikukortti-network.

Kaikukortti is in use in multiple districts in Finland. With Kaikukortti you can get event tickets and course admissions free of charge to all destinations, that are a part of the nationwide Kaikukortti network. You can explore the different regions’ Kaikukortti selection more at Kaikukortti’s website at https://kaikukortti.fi/en/kaikukortti-card/localities/

More info: https://www.vaasa.fi/en/see-and-experience/culture-in-vaasa-and-vaasa-region/culture-services/kaikukortti-2/ 

Kaikukortti nationwide on Facebook: facebook.com/kaikukortti/

More info on Kaikukortti nationwidei: kaikukortti.fi

Five concerts with the price of three!

The serial ticket includes 5 optional concerts at Korsholm Music Festival.

The serial ticket must always be changed into a seated ticket in the online store before the concert by using the code in the serial ticket.

Give in to the charm of music with Korsholm Music Festival’s affordable festival pass! After buying a pass you get one ticket for each concert in your email.  You can find the festival pass in the webshop under any of Korsholm Music Festival’s concerts.

Please note! The festival pass includes the 16:00 show of A Day at the Circus! In Michael Bleu sings Soul Classics the placenumber for a passholder is in the hall, not in the balcony. Of Rodeo & Rhapsody the concert in Vähäkyrö is included in the pass. If you would like to go to the concert in Kurikka instead, please contact info@kmf.fi 

Concert No 9 in Salteriet was reserved out in May 2026, and for that reason the festival pass doesn’t reserve a seat in that concert anymore. If you have a festival pass and would like to come to the concert in Salteriet, please contact info@kmf.fi or pop by at the festival office at Vaasa City Hall.

For us, environmental responsibility means concrete actions in our own activities. We are committed to conserving natural resources and increasing our positive impact on the environment. As proof of this, we have been granted the EcoCompass certificate.

Our environmental promise:

1. We take environmental responsibility into account in our acquisitions and while choosing collaboration partners.
2. We communicate about our work for environmental responsibility and achievements. We encourage our audience, partners and artists to act according to our values. 
3. We contribute to environmental responsibility through our own network.

What is EcoCompass?

Korsholm Music Festival has been granted the EcoCompass certificate. It requires building an environmental program and adhering to it in the organisation’s year-round operations. An independent third party audits the environmental program every three years. The next audit for Korsholm Music Festival is this summer.

What does EcoCompass mean in practice?

As part of its environmental program Korsholm Music Festival does, among others, the following things:

• Favors travel by train and boat instead of plane and car in domestic travel
• Rents only electric cars when it comes to passenger cars
• Provides free bus transport for the audience to concerts outside Vaasa city center
• Buys technological equipment primarily second hand
• Instead of concert flowers, makes a donation to a sustainability focused organisation
• Does not use AI as a primary tool