Welcome to Lieksa Brass Week 2010!

Lieksa Brass Week has no intention of resting on its laurels after its splendid jubilee festival! On the contrary, the order of the day is once again: full steam ahead. To this end we have invited along some fine new brass artists and numerous contestan Jouko Harjanne, artistic director ts in our international French horn competition. And our theme for this year is folk and national music from different countries performed on brass instruments.

For here in Finland, brass music began life as tunes piped on cow’s and later birch-bark horns, and many composers have used folk music as the basis for their works. At our next Brass Week we will be making a point of this with concerts featuring anything from folk songs to a “Washerwoman’s Polka” or Portuguese Fado, performed on brass.

For the first time in 2010 we welcome the Budapest Festival Horn Quartet from Hungary, trumpeter Francisco Flores with his Venezuelan trio and trumpeter Joe Burgstaller; Joe delighted audiences last year as a member of Canadian Brass and now returns with his new quartet BM4. The other soloists will include John Stevens on tuba, Ron Baron on trombone and Lisa Ford and Jeffrey Lang on French horn. In other words, we can look forward to some unforgettable moments with a variety of genres and artists.

One of the most exciting concerts will, for me, be that of music by Paavo Heininen and the world premieres of his sonatas for trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba. In other words, Brass Week will, at a single concert, be giving the very first performance of no fewer than four major, interesting works for brass.

The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland under its conductor John Storgårds, the Karelia Military Band, the Sisu wind orchestra, the Euphoria Brass Sextet and a new line-up – Finnish Folk Brass – are among the Finnish ensembles whose performances we can enjoy in the course of the week.

So please do join us in making Brass Week 2010 another “jubilee year” as we immerse ourselves in the magnificent brass atmosphere of our concerts.

Make it a date, brass folk!

Jouko Harjanne
Artistic Director

www.joukoharjanne.com