Violinist Peter Csaba was acting Artistic Director of Kuhmo Chamber Music, Seppo Kimanen being on sabbatical leave. The themes of the 31st Festival were Ludwig van Beethoven, whose nearly all chamber music works were performed during the festival, the composers of the turn of the Millennium, the romantic trio and the quintets. The 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach’s death was also highlighted at the festival.

”When making such a festival for the first time, you don’t have any concrete expectations, actually, Peter Csaba said. ”You just had to believe that everything would be running smoothly. In my opinion the festival as a whole was a success, the kind I was hoping for.”

”A year as Artistic Director of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival has been a significant experience and I am happy to be back next year as an ’ordinary’ artist. On one hand this experience has not changed me at all and on the other it has a lot; I now see many things in a new way.”

The festival was favoured by the weather conditions: during the first week there were lots of sunshine in Kuhmo and pretty hot weather. Heavy rain and thunderstorms passed by Kuhmo at a distance of only 20 kilometers.

The audience had the opportunity to listen to the new organ of the Kuhmo church in the concert of Kalevi Kiviniemi.

New works commissioned by the Festival were performed: the Flute Quintet by Kalevi Aho, performed by Mikael Helasvuo and the Lahti Chamber Music Society Quartet and a composition for harpsichord by Jukka Tiensuu, played by the composer.

The festival programme featured the traditional Saturday evening’s marathon concerts: Chamber Music Fever, introduced by Peter Csaba together with composer Kalevi Aho and, the Chamber Music Cavalcade with Mr Csaba and actor Lasse Pöysti. Japanese music was performed by the Marie Okabe Trio and acoustic klezmer music by the Finnish Doina Klezmer ensemble.

A new headline, Carte Blanche provided an opportunity for artists to play or perform whatever they wished, with whomever they wished at the Salakamari inn and tell the audience about their music. Ralf Gothoni, Christoph Henkel, Frans Helmerson, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Eduard Brunner appeared at Salakamari.

There were many new names among the performers: among others tenor Neil Mackie, violinists Michiko Kamiya and Vilmos Szabadi, violist Tasso Adamopoulos, cellists Lluis Claret and Zvi Plesser, double bass player Panu Pärssinen, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Martá Gulyás, Håvard Gimse, Kevin Kenner and Wu Han, oboist Aisling Casey, flutist Janne Thomsen, horn player Hervé Joulain, accordionist James Crabb as well as the Brentano, Dante, Jerusalem and Ysaÿe Quartets.

The paintings of Osmo Rauhala were exhibited in the foyer of the Kuhmo Arts Centre and “The Loom, the Yarn and the Broken Heart”, an exhibition of tapestry and graphics by Ariadna Donner was on show at the Chamber Music Centre.

The artistic quality of the event was excellent and the attendance was close to 42 000, an average of previous years. There was one daily event less than before.

2001

The 32nd Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival highlighted 300 years of European Chamber Music from the eighteenth century to the present day. The journey in time advanced in daily portions of approximately 20 years. Back after a sabbatical year, Artistic Director Seppo Kimanen created a collection of 104 concerts to be performed in the course of two weeks, the history of European Chamber Music evolving chronologically from J. S. Bach to Arvo Pärt.

The festival was celebrated under auspicious stars – major programme changes and cancellations were avoided, weather conditions were fine and the organisational part worked well. Kimanen had created his largest ever festival – the musical journey was the result of a matchless effort. Close to 400 works were performed by 80 single artists and 20 ensembles, which adds up to nearly 200 musicians. There were seven daily concerts – the last concert starting at 11pm.

The programming of this year’s festival was such a big effort, that Kimanen doubts he will ever undertake anything of that kind. “The sabbatical year led out of the frying pan into the fire”, Kimanen gives a laugh. ”During that time
I had the illusion of having unlimited time and boundless strength.”

In the field of chamber music, the Viennese Classical period is best known as one can see from ticket sale. The programme featured several rarities from the 18th century, some of them had probably their first performance in Finland only now. The mere search for the music took months. This is the case of, for instance, Franz Xavier Richter’s (1709-1789) String Quartet in C and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s (1710-1736) Cantata op. 2/2.

Contemporary music was emphasised during the last days of the festival. Five works were premiered: the works of Paavo Heininen, Mikko Heiniö and Einojuhani Rautavaara, commissioned by the Kuhmo Chamber Music
Festival and, further, the works for Accordeon Trio of Tuomas Kantelinen and Pehr Henrik Nordgren, commissioned By Trio Fratres

First-timer artists of Kuhmo were, among others, tenor Peter Schreier, acclaimed interpreter of Bach, pianist Angela Hewitt, violinist Mark Lubotski and young Finnish singers Mari Palo, Helena Juntunen and Topi Lehtipuu.

String Quartets occupied a conspicuous position. Founded 55 years ago, the Borodin Quartet as well as the Auer Quartet, a young and extremely promising Hungarian ensemble, performed at the festival. In all, the programme featured six string quartets, such as the Mandelring and the Vogler Quartets from Germany. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to listen to Florilegium, a leading Baroque ensemble from the UK and the Gryphon Trio from Canada.

The rejuvenation operation of the festival’s body of artists was clearly visible this year. In addition to the fact, that one of the festival’s objectives is to promote young artists the supply of young talent has grown enormously: the qualitative difference between the students attending the music course and the artists is narrower than ever, as the best students are close to coequal to the Festival musicians.

An “out-of-the Way” concert was organized in a most remote place: the concert venue, the Levävaara House, deep in the reserve of Elimyssalo, could only be reached via duckboards. The members of the Auer Quartet were supplied with wellies.

The festival’s Corsican theme, including a concert and an evening with Corsican food, was a success story and an overture to next year’s Mediterranean theme. Traditional Corsican vocal music was performed by the A Filetta ensemble in Kuhmo Church. Further, a series of three late night church concerts featured Biber’s Mystery Sonatas. These were performed by Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen and the Battalia ensemble and proved to be a success as well.

“The Bold and the Beautiful”, a photo exhibition of Caj Bremer, grand old man of Finnish photography, was on show during the festival at the Kuhmo Arts Centre.

Attendance got close to 42.000. “The economic situation is tight”, states Executive Director Tuulikki Karjalainen. “The maturity of the festival organisation was proven and aa events were carried out without difficulties. This year’s budget was 5 MFIM.

2002

For it’s 33rd season the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival reverted to it’s former dimensions after the previous summer’s big effort. In true Kuhmo tradition the programme was formed into a dialogue between old and new. The main themes running through this year’s festival were Vienna, the Mediterranean and Russia and, accordingly, Artistic Director Seppo Kimanen had put together a range of 83 concerts runnng across a fortnight. The festival took place 14 July – 28 July 2002.

The three themes created a veritable feast of styles, colours, different periods and a fireworks of excellent music. The red line running right through the fortnight were Vienna and the Viennese composers Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms. Around them the festival wove a tapestry of Spanish music from the 16th century to the present day, Italian Baroque and Romaticism, as well as a broad selection of leading Russian chamber music composers. In addition to such great Russian Romanticists as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, there was a pageant of Russian music from the Imperial Courts to Dmitri Shostakovich.

The most recent Finnish music was highlighted at the Uussävel Composer’s Competition. The winner was voted by the audience on the second Friday evening when the titles of the compositions and the six finalists were known but not which composer had composed respective work. The finale could be heard both at the Arts Centre and live at the YLE Radio One Channel. In the concert hall, the audience voted for their favourites by ballot and, the radio listeners via SMS. The competition was won by Seppo Pohjola and his composition New York New York. Jorma Härkönen’s Visions Invisibles was placed second, Tapio Tuomela’s Juoigga!, third, Juha Leinonen’s Foga, fourth, Uljas Pulkkis’ Djinni, fifth and Pertti Jalava’s Spiraali, sixth. The award sum (EUR 8 400) was divided between the works according to the amount of votes received.

A rarity representing another era, the Spanish chamber opera, La púrpura de la rosa (1701), performed as a concert version by Andrew Lawrence-King and his ensemble, represented another era.

This year the number of string quartets was eight. The legendary Russian Borodin Quartet was joined by the Chilingirian Quartet, UK and the Silesia Quartet, Poland. Among the newcomers the young Russian Dominant Quartet from Moscow and the Utrecht Quartet from the Netherlands could be heard at the festival. The Jean Sibelius, Tempera and New Helsinki Quartets represented Finland.

Spain and Morocco were this year’s new musical seizures of territory. Concentrating on early Spanish music, the a cappella vocal ensembles La Colombina and Musica Reservata de Barcelona appeared at Kuhmo. The Efim Jourist Tango Ensemble introduced Russian tangos to Kuhmo audiences, while the ensemble of traditional music, the Lmaalem Brahim Gnawa Ensemble and singer Karima Skalli as well as luthist Azeddine Montassere, Morocco, brought along a breath of Arabic culture from the Mediterranean region.

Piano music for four hands was another of this year’s festival themes, performed by the popular Kutrowatz brothers from Austria and the Önder sisters from Turkey. Music making families were well represented at the festival: Natalia Gutman appeared with her son Sviatoslav Moroz, Valentin Berlinsky (cellist with the Borodin Quartet) with his daughter Ludmila Berlinskaya, and Anna Gebert with her brother Alexander Gebert.

Newcomers at the festival were, among others, pianists Boris Berezovski, Roberto Prosseda and Dmitri Vinnikas as well as violinists Judith Ingolfsson, winner of the Indianapolis violin competition, Svetlin Roussev and Sonia Wieder-Atherton, also known as a composer and the star French oboist Francois Leleux. As usual, Virtuosi di Kuhmo appeared under Peter Csaba.

The rising Finnish stars at Kuhmo included Arttu Kataja, recent winner of the Lappeenranta Singing Competition,Tuuli Lindeberg and Herman Wallén, both newcomers at Kuhmo.

The attendance was 41.000 visitors. “Judging from attendance the message seems to be: ”We will be back next summer”. The audience clearly showed authentic enthusiasm - I can look forward to the future with confidence”, says Kimanen.

The Festival’s most explicit innovation could be observed at the music course, where several chamber music ensembles were formed. The new Artistic Director Junio Kimanen seized upon the original idea of the course and stressed the express importance of chamber music ensembles.

At the music course, the Kees Wiebenga scholarship was distributed to the Quartett Ensemble as well as to the performers of the Mendelssohn octet of the Prima Vista workshop, tutored by Anna Gebert. A scholarship of one thousand euros was distributed in connection with Inspirations of the Day, the student concert series. After listening to all the students’ performances, the jury members Junio Kimanen, Grazyna Zeranska and Yrjö Manninen chose the best new ensemble, founded at the music course. The scholarship was distributed for the first time.

Fortunately enough the Chamber Music Workshop concerts and the student concerts were well attended.

A record number of programmes about the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival were made for international TV distribution. Fuji Television, Japan, were preparing a programme to be broadcast next fall primetime (“Incredible Stories” series). Further, Reiner Moritz, RM Associates, recorded all Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich string quartets performed at Kuhmo by the Borodin Quartet, as well as a range of Brahms works, performed by violinist Elisabeth Batiashvili and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The cooperation with Filmikonttori, Finland, initiated last year, was continued this summer. The Finnish Broadcasting Company was present at he festival as well: the Belaieff Salon concert was broadcast live and the company also recorded three concerts.

Two “Out-of-the-way” concerts were organized. The concert venues were the Niva House, village of Niva (Silesia Quartet) and the Levävaara House, situated in the nature reserve of Elimyssalo, which can be reached via duckboards (Ensemble Capriccio).

Elina Pyykkönen and Marja-Stiina Suihkonen, two voluntary workers from the Festival Café, were awarded a trip to Japan each. Both live in Kuhmo. The trips were donated by Akiko and Kiyomasa Arai, Yoshiko Arai’s parents.

A collection of Finnish contemporary art from the OKO Arts Foundation was on show in the vestibule of the Arts Centre.

Weather was extremely variable, changing from hot to several rainy days. Although it had rained all day on the day of the Chamber Music Fever concert, the sky cleared up and, there was splendid sun shining in the evening from the first intermission. And there was a chance to arrive dry-shod to the Amati café before next rain.

The Chamber Music Festival budget 2002 was 800 000 euros.

2003

In its 34th summer Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival connected chamber
music to dance. The praised performance of Petrushka by the Tero Saarinen Company as well as Tiina Lindfors’ choreography to Four Walls by John Cage featured in the festival programme

Other festival themes highlighted a broad range of W. A. Mozart’s chamber music work, keyboard music by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin as well as French 19 century piano music with emphasis on Eric Satie. There was a record number of pianists among the festival artists and there was an audible presence of a great many string quartets. The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival took place 13-27 July 2003.

Together with the Drottningholm, the Aix-en-Provence and the Santa Fe festivals, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival headed Andrew Clark’s list of the four most remarquable music festivals, published in the Guardian, in good time before the festival.

This summer’s first performances included a Piano trio by Paavo Heininen and a Clarinet quintet by Pehr Henrik Nordgren, both commissioned by Kuhmo Chamber Music. In all, nearly 60 commissioned works have been performed at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.

The Wasifuddin Dagar Dhrupad Ensemble appeared as a guest from India, where the Dagar family has kept the Islamic Dhrupad vocal tradition alive for over 22 generations. The Moroccan Mohamed Briouel Ensemble performed classic Moorish-Andalucian music, and Klezmer music, especially popular in Central Europe, was performed by the Györa Feidman Quartet, a newcomer in Finland.

The traditional Saturday Cavalcade was replaced by a Tango-Klezmer concert at Kontio School and a Mozart Marathon at the Arts Centre. After that, at 22.00, Mozart’s Requiem was performed at Kuhmo Church. Conducted by Andres Mustonen, a chamber version of the work was performed, where the soloists executed the choir’s parts

Newcomers at Kuhmo were pianists Bruce Brubaker, Andrew Russo, Jean Dubé and Pierre Mancinelli, cellist David Geringas and clarinetist Ronald van Spaendonck, the Jean Paul Piano Trio.

In addition to the Jean Paul Trio there were other small-sized ensembles at Kuhmo, such as the Danel Quartet, the Endellion Quartet, the Uusi Helsinki Quartet and the Gryphon Trio.

There were two larger ensembles appearing at the festival: Avanti! and Virtuosi di Kuhmo, who concluded the 34th Chamber Music Festival, conducted by Peter Csaba and Natalia Gutman as soloist.

Owing to illness Gergely Bogányi had to cancel his appearance. He was replaced by Antti Siirala, who payed Kuhmo a flying visit.

Launched by the Virtuosi – International Centre of Chamber Music, the Melartin Project was continued, as four quartets by Erkki Melartin were performed by the Melartin and Meta4 Quartets at Lentiira Church. The works were recorded during the festival as well. Fallen into near oblivion, these string quartets were prepared for execution and recording in the frames of the project, which lasted eight months.

A photo exhibition by Jorma Komulainen, presenting people from Kainuu in the 70s, was on show in the foyer of the Kuhmo Arts Centre.

During the festival, its most recent partner, the National Board of Forestry, organized two excursions to Huovisnäreikkö, Sotkamo. This year, the “out-of-the way” concerts took place at the Jauhovaara Forestry hut, after the excursions. The excursions were fully booked in a couple of days.

The Kuhmo Chamber Music Shop and the Café were shifted to the Kontio School Cantine and it was therefore open all the day. Due to record attendance, Harry Halbreich’s daily presentations of the day’s programme, had to be transferred from the Amati Café to the more spacious Salakamari premises. The festival cantine was moved to Tuupala School.

For the first time, an Internet-based ticket sales system was in use, and run smoothly.

Weather was eceptionally good, even hot and oppressive at times. There was thunder in the air a couple of times, but only once a proper thundershower could be admired. In a fortnight there was a cloudy morning only once. In her recital, Brasilian pianist Cristina Ortiz compared the sultriness to her native Brasilian heat.

The attendance reached 44 000. The festival budget 2003 was 800 000 Euros.

2004

During its 35th summer season the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival took upon itself the vast project of performing all the Haydn string quartets. To play the no fewer than 69 works it invited along 14 string quartets – a record number in the history of the Festival. Among them were both young Finnish ensembles such as the Meta4 Quartet and the legendary 60-year-old Borodin Quartet. The Lindsay Quartet, which plans to disband next year, gave its last recital on the second Tuesday of the Festival to a packed Lentua Hall. Seppo Kimanen bade the quartet farewell with fine sauna switches to a standing ovation. A traditional Finnish sauna kit complete with tar and liquor was presented to the quartet at the Salakamari. The Lindsay’s performances were recorded by RM Associates.

Other themes for the year, besides Haydn, were the core chamber repertoire of Felix Mendelssohn, and emigrant composers in the United States.

The season’s premieres were commissions from Jouni Kaipainen and Tapio Tuomela. Performing at the 90 concerts were 170 artists in a festival that ran from 11 to 25 July.

Making their first visit to Kuhmo were the French Castagneri and Diotima Quartets, the Austrian Aron and German Rodin. Representing Finland were the New Helsinki, Tempera, Meta4 and Jean Sibelius Quartets. Also appearing at the Festival were the Petersen and Georgia Quartets from Germany, the Danel from Belgium, the Auer from Hungary and the Borodin and Dominant from Russia.

The Festival featured a record number of pianists – 24 in all, including such names as Daniel Blumenthal, Filippo Gamba, Stefan Litwin, Antti Siirala and Lisa Smirnova. Among the first-time singers were Susan Narucki and Gabriel Suovanen, and Canadian Marie-Nicole Lemieux, whose contralto sent her Kuhmo audience into ecstasies.

The eagerly-awaited visit by György and Marta Kurtág, and by Nuria Schönberg-Nono, daughter of Arnold Schönberg, had to be cancelled for reasons of health.

Five of the concerts were already sold out at the start of the Festival, fourteen three days later and more and more as the Festival proceeded. An extra concert was arranged on the last weekend due to the great demand for tickets. The 35th anniversary concert at the Kuhmo Arts Centre was sold out beforehand and a parallel extra all-stars concert was held at Kontio School.

The soloists for the new Young Chamber Musicians concert series in the second week of the Festival were selected from the applications submitted. The most distant were from New York and Japan. The aim of the series is to provide performing opportunities for talented young musicians and to bring them in contact with festival and concert organisers. Some of the 14 young soloists attended the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival music course, which attracted 121 students in 2004. The Artistic Director of the course was Junio Kimanen.

The programme for the 2004 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival also included traditional vocal music from Sardinia sung by the Tenores di Neoneli, and hymns with a jazz orientation performed by the Perko-Pyysalo-Viinikainen Trio.

In the foyer of the Kuhmo Arts Centre was an exhibition designed by graphic artist Pekka Lehtinen of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival posters over the years, while the Salakamari put on an exhibition by Stefan Bremer devoted to “35 Years of Kuhmo Images”. A work of art by calligrapher Shôka Zaitsu donated to the Kuhmo Chamber Music Association was displayed in the upper foyer of the Kuhmo Arts Centre.

The 35th Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival began with the finals of an international competition for string quartets and piano trios that was won by the Carducci Quartet of players from the UK and Ireland. The winner of the second prize was the UTA Quartet from Finland and of the third another Finnish quartet, the Kamus. In view of the high standard of the competition, the Jury decided to award several special prizes. That for the best ensemble that failed to reach the finals went to the Royal Quartet from Poland. The first prize was worth €12,000, the second €8,000, the third €4,000 and the special prizes €2,000 in all. The prizes were presented to the winners by the Finnish Minister of Culture, Ms Tanja Karpela.

The first week of the Festival was extremely wet. The sun nevertheless came out at the beginning of the mid-Festival weekend and continued to shine over the Kuhmo region for the whole of the second week.

The Festival had a budget of €850,000 and recorded a total audience of 41,000.

2005

The three main themes for this year’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival were Czech music, the solo songs of Jean Sibelius, and Luigi Boccherini. Receiving their first performance were the sextet Metamorphoses for accordion, string quartet and double bass by Paavo Korpijaakko – a festival commission – and the guitar sonata “Jehkin Iivana” by Olli Mustonen. The 36th Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival was being held from 17 to 31 July 2005.

This year was the last for Professor Seppo Kimanen as Artistic Director of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. The programme for next summer is being planned by Vladimir Mendelssohn, Professor of chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire. Last spring he took up the post of Director of the Finnish Institute in London. “To my mind, our expectations have all been met, and I could not hope for more. I will go away from the festival and my 35 years in Kuhmo in a very positive mood,” says Seppo Kimanen.

In addition to more than 60 songs by Sibelius, the festival programme included a number of violin and piano pieces by him. The Czech works numbered more than a hundred and include all the Dvorák string quartets apart from some of the early ones. Kryštof Mařatka (b. 1972), a leading contemporary composer, was also well represented and will be attending the festival in person, and so was Australian composer Andrew Ford.

Among the first-timers were mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, Polish-born tenor John Daszak, Cyprian baritone Kyros Patsalides, Finnish baritone Tommi Hakala and Finnish soprano Tiina Penttinen and mezzo soprano Essi Luttinen. Among the stars at this year’s festival were the recent winner of the Franz Liszt Competition Yingdi Sun and the winner of the 2003 Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition Severin von Eckardstein. The list of artists further included such names as violinists Chloë Hanslip, Pekka Kuusisto, and Hagai Shaham, cellists Natalia Gutman, who performed all the Bach suites for solo cello, Christoph Richter, Michel Strauss, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Marko Ylönen. Other instruments were represented by Mika Väyrynen, accordion, Ismo Eskelinen, guitar, and others.

Eleven string quartets could be heard during the festival: the Ardeo, Danel, Dante, Emperor, Mozarteum and Utrecht, and from Finland the Kamus, Meta4, Jean Sibelius and New Helsinki. The Australian Goldner Quartet were playing works by leading contemporary Australian composers. Appearing at the festival was also the Virtuosi di Kuhmo, conducted for the first time by Okko Kamu, and the Baroque ensembles The Brook Street Band and Capella Apollinis. There were three wind quintets at this year’s festival: the Ma'alot Quintet, the Phoenix Wind Quintet and Arktinen Hysteria. Festival ended on Sunday with a concert in Kuhmo Church by the Lumen Valo vocal ensemble.

Works by Hannu Väisänen were on display in the main foyer of the Kuhmo Arts Centre and watercolours by Klaus von Matt in the upper foyer.

The estimated number of festival visitors before the last two concerts stands at nearly 40,000, which is slightly less than last year. In the end, no fewer than 16 of the festival concerts were sold out. The budget for this year’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival is €880,000.

2006

Ludwig van Beethoven was the spotlight composer for the 37th Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, featuring the Finnish premiere of an arrangement for chamber ensemble of the composer’s piano concerto no. 4, as well as the complete string quartets and seldom performed miniatures for mechanical organ. This was Vladimir Mendelssohn’s first season as Artistic Director of the Festival. There were 20 concerts less in the programme while there were more concerts with one or several intermissions. The Festival took place 16 - 29 July 2006.

The audience and the press took a special interest in a most extraordinary instrument, a glass harmonica, played by Thomas Bloch. Seldom heard composers were Beethoven's contemporaries Heinrich Baermann, John Field, Franz Xaver Mozart, Archduke Rudolf and Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The late White Night concerts were devoted to nocturnal music. Exceptionally, the closing concert of the Festival took place already on Saturday evening at Kuhmo Arts Centre.

Exceptionally, two chamber orchestras appeared at the Festival: Kremerata Baltica under the baton of Gidon Kremer and Virtuosi di Kuhmo conducted by Peter Csaba. The list of pianists, starring at the festival included, among others, Paavali Jumppanen, who appeared at the festival in his hundreth concert, the fine array of violinists featuring such names as Peter Cropper, Chloë Hanslip and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

The body of String Quartets appearing at the festival included the Enescu, Iturriaga, Meta4 and Quarrell Quartets as well as the Danel Quartet, who performed all the Beethoven string quartets. Other ensembles appearing at the Festival were Belcanto Strings, the Storioni-trio from Amsterdam as well as the Kraft-duo with Pekka Kuusisto, violin and Johanna Juhola, accordion. A dance performance was featuring in this year’s festival programme again, as Tiina Lindfors performed her solo choreography Three Dreams as One to music by Mikko Heiniö.

The Young Chamber Musicians programme included musicians such as Juho Pohjonen and recent winner of the Leipzig International Bach Competition Irina Zahharenkova, piano, Olga Polonsky and Sini-Maaria Simonen, violin, as well as eleven years old Saara Heikkinen, from Kuhmo.

In the Kuhmo Arts Centre foyer, facsimiles of watercolours by composer Mendelssohn-Bartholdy were exhibited.

The first festival week was sunny, the evenings were rich in atmosphere. On Wednesday of the second week weather cooled down. The attendance estimate exceeded 35 000. Seventeen concerts were sold out, among these the Wednesday morning Church concert featuring Kremarata Baltica and Gidon Kremer was fully booked.

The budget for the 2006 Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival is €840,000.

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