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THE PYHÄ-LUOSTO SERIES (a total of 5 concerts)
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Presale 140 € (+ Ticketmaster handling fees) • Festival Office 155 €
Thursday 6.8. • Souvenirs, Kelo Restaurant, Luosto
Friday 7.8. • The Voyage of the Saxtronauts, Aittakuru, Pyhä • Trailhead, Chapel of Northern Lights, Pyhä
Saturday 8.8. • Songs of Travel, Ukko-Luosto outdoor stage, Luosto • A Journey Ends, Kelo Restaurant, Luosto
THE PYHÄ DAY (a total of 2 concerts)
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Presale 50 € (+ Ticketmaster handling fees) • Festival Office 60 €
Friday 7.8. • The Voyage of the Saxtronauts, Aittakuru, Pyhä • Trailhead, Chapel of Northern Lights, Pyhä
THE LUOSTO DAY (a total of 3 concerts)
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Presale 86 € (+ Ticketmaster handling fees) • Festival Office 95 €
Saturday 8.8. • Songs of Travel, Ukko-Luosto outdoor stage, Luosto • To sea!, Ski Restaurant Knööli • A Journey Ends, Kelo Restaurant, Luosto
PROGRAM
Wednesday 5.8.2026
Pop-up performances
On the day before the festival proper, musicians will wander around Pyhä-Luosto and Sodankylä, offering musical interludes to residents and tourists alike.
Thursday 6.8.2026
17.00-18.00 Hotel Sodankylä, Sodankylä
THE LONE WANDERER – OPENING CONCERT
At the opening concert of this travel-themed festival, we meet solo adventurers. We ponder what it is like to encounter the world in all its beauty and horror alone. When a solo performer steps onto the stage or a person experiences something new in their everyday life, are they truly alone? And how do our wanderings reflect our roots?
Joan Tower
Big Sky
Kalevi Aho
Solo XVI ”Ballade”
György Ligeti
Sonata for Solo Cello
Franz Schubert
Wanderer Fantasy op. 15
Elisar Riddelin, violin
Annika Valkeajoki, cello
Martin Malmgren, piano
Hilda Kunnola, harp
20.00-21.30 Kelo Restaurant, Luosto
SOUVENIRS
Composers are among the few who can truly pack light, eternal souvenirs from their travels. This concert features works that describe journeys and places. The pastoral idyll of Ireland and Scotland, the temples of Taiwan, and the streets of Florence arrive in the concert hall through the composers' memories.
Arnold Bax
Quintet for Harp and Strings
Helen Grime
To see the summer sky
Lu Yun
Temples in Taiwan
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Souvenir de Florence op. 70
Tuulia Hero, violin
Joonas Pekonen, vioin
Elisar Riddelin, violin
Vuokko Lahtinen, viola
Aida Hadzajlic, viola
Saara Särkimäki, cello
Annika Valkeajoki, cello
Hilda Kunnola, harp
This concert has an intermission.
Friday 7.8.2026
13.00-14.00 Sodankylä’s Old Church, Sodankylä
GRAND TOUR
In the 1700s and 1800s, upper-class men, mainly from the United Kingdom, traveled throughout Europe to broaden their general knowledge and see the world. This journey, known as the Grand Tour, often took them from London to Paris and Rome. This concert features works that travelers might have heard on this tour or upon their return home.
Attr. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Trio Sonata no. 1 in G Major
Joseph Bologne
String Quartet in E-flat Major, op. 1 no. 2
Anna Bon
Sonata in D Major, op.1 no. 4
Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in C Major, op. 74 no. 1
Livia Schweizer, flute
Joonas Pekonen, violin
Tuulia Hero, violin
Aida Hadzajlic, viola
Saara Särkimäki, cello
17.00-18.00 Aittakuru, Pyhä
THE VOYAGE OF THE SAXTRONAUTS
The renowned Finnish saxophone quartet Saxtronauts is the perfect guest for this year's festival. After all, they like to call themselves an exploratory ensemble. In a unique concert in the magnificent Aittakuru, the Saxtronauts will create a space where everything is in dialogue: modernity and the Renaissance, space and performance, musicians and audience, people and nature. A wonderful adventure awaits.
Hildegard von Bingen
O nobilissima viriditas (arr. Anna-Sofia Anttonen)
Maria Kõrvits
Polaaröö
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Lamentatio
Outi Tarkiainen
There is more light in this room when you are here
Arvo Pärt
Summa
Hildegard von Bingen
Karitas (arr. Anna-Sofia Anttonen)
Anna-Sofia Anttonen, saxophones
Nanna Ikonen, saxophones
Nanako Lammi, saxophones
Sikri Lehk, saxophones
19.30-21.30 Chapel of Northern Lights, Pyhä
TRAILHEAD
Every journey begins somewhere, and even the longest ones start with a single step. This evening concert tells the story of that first moment, full of anticipation and expectation, when everything is still possible. The program features the breakthrough works of Toivo Kuula and Ruth Crawford Seeger, the first compositions that brought them wider recognition, as well as Claude Debussy's harp trio, one of the first works composed for this rarer ensemble.
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Sonata for violin and piano
Claude Debussy
Sonata for flute, viola, and harp
Toivo Kuula
Piano Trio in A Major, op. 7
Livia Schweizer, flute
Tuulia Hero, violin
Elisar Riddelin, violin
Vuokko Lahtinen, viola
Annika Valkeajoki, cello
Martin Malmgren, piano
Hilda Kunnola, harp
This concert has an intermission.
Saturday 8.8.2026
13.00-15.00 Ukko-Luosto Outdoor Stage, Luosto
SONGS OF TRAVEL
For the main concert of the year, the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra take us on a journey through the music of three composers. Young rising star baritone Gabriel Kivivuori Sereno interprets Vaughan Williams' touchingly beautiful Songs of Travel, which ask us to consider how our travels shape us. The program is opened with a piece by Kalevi Aho that has influences from as far as Japan and Tunisia, and the second half features Mendelssohn's Symphony no. 3, which was inspired by a trip to Scotland.
Kalevi Aho
...frozen were the restless waters
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Songs of Travel (orchestrated by the composer and Roy Douglas)
Felix Mendelssohn
Symphony no. 3 in a minor, op. 56 “Scottish”
Kuopio Symphony Orchestra
Aku Sorensen, conductor
Gabriel Kivivuori Sereno, baritone
This concert has an intermission.
16.00-17.00 Ski Restaurant Knööli, Luosto
TO SEA!
Traveling by ship has an almost mythical significance in human history, as water is so important in bringing people and cultures together. This concert reflects on the sea, which connects and carries us. The performance culminates in a harp quintet composed by naval officer Jean Cras while serving on a warship.
Sebastian Fagerlund
Oceano
Mioko Yokoyama
Agape
Jean Cras
Harp Quintet
Livia Schweizer, flute
Elisar Riddelin, violin
Vuokko Lahtinen, viola
Annika Valkeajoki, cello
Hilda Kunnola, harp
18.30-20.30 Kelo Restaurant, Luosto
A JOURNEY ENDS
In the fall of 2018, Tarmo Järvilehto began a series of performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas in Sodankylä. Now, after eight years, the journey is coming to an end. In the final recital of the series, we will experience three milestones in Beethoven's life: his first sonata, his last sonata, and the monumental Appassionata.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata no. 1 in f minor, op. 2 no. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata no. 23 in f minor, op. 57 “Appasionato”
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata no. 32 in c minor, op. 111
Tarmo Järvilehto, piano
This concert has an intermission.
21.00-23.00 Restaurant Punakettu, Luosto
BY THE CAMPFIRE - SALOON CONCERT
Every year, the penultimate evening of the festival ends on the terrace of Restaurant Punakettu, where the festival musicians perform a lighter program and spend time with festival guests. Shared enjoyment – like sitting around a campfire on a long journey.
Sunday 9.8.2026
13.00-15.00 Hotel Sodankylä, Sodankylä
ON THE BORDER - CLOSING CONCERT
What does it mean to stand at the border? Behind you lies everything you know, have experienced, and learned. Ahead of you lies the unknown. How do we cross these borders in our own lives? When composing the work on this program, Amy Beach was preparing to retire from composing. Felix Mendelssohn, on the other hand, was recovering from the death of his beloved sister and trying to imagine life without her. Sally Beamish pondered the borders between land and sea and life and death and considers what they all have in common.
Amy Beach
Piano Trio in a minor, op. 150
Sally Beamish
Between Earth and Sea
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet No. 6 in f minor, op. 80
Livia Schweizer, flute
Elisar Riddelin, violin
Tuulia Hero, violin
Joonas Pekonen, violin
Vuokko Lahtinen, viola
Aida Hadzajlic, viola
Annika Valkeajoki, cello
Saara Särkimäki, cello
Hilda Kunnola, harp
Martin Malmgren, piano
This concert has an intermission.
