Welcome
It is with great pleasure and anticipation that we invite you, choristers and conductors, to come to Finland, break bread with us, make music and sing, and generally have the time of your life at the 7th NORDIC – BALTIC Choral Festival 2012 for mixed choirs that will take place in Helsinki, Finland, 22-25 August 2012. The centre of the event is the unique Finlandia Hall in the very heart of Helsinki. Most concerts take place in Finlandia Hall and meals are also served here.
It will be a unique trip and an unforgettable experience for you to visit this land of lakes and forests and for those who are more familiar with the scenery it will be a unique opportunity to gather in the capital of Finland to meet fellow singers from the Nordic and Baltic countries.
In addition to doing what you love best: singing, socializing, traveling, you will experience a nation of friendly people, full of hospitality and curiosity, with a craving for learning new things, making new friends who are eagerly waiting to blend their voices with yours.
We will communicate in english during the festival.
Important dates
The NB12 Team
Kari Turunen - Artistic Director
Kari Turunen was educated at the University of Helsinki and the Sibelius Academy where he studied choral conducting with Matti Hyökki. He has completed his studies with numerous master classes (with Eric Ericson, Anders Eby, Stefan Sköld, The Hilliard Ensemble and Oren Brown). He is presently working on his doctoral studies at the Sibelius Academy on the performance practice of 16th century sacred music.
Mr. Turunen is the artistic director of three choirs: the female choir Akademiska Damkören Lyran (since 1998), the chamber group Näsin Ääni (2002-) and the male chorus Akademiska Sångföreningen (2008-). He is also a member of Lumen Valo, a vocal ensemble that is one of the driving forces on the Finnish early music scene.
He was awarded the conductor prize at the 2003 Marktoberdorf Chamber Choir competition, where Lyran received third prize in the category for female choirs.
Mr. Turunen teaches choral conducting at the Pirkanmaa University of Applied Sciences, School of Music and heads its choral activities. He appears regularly as an orchestral conductor, teacher of choral courses and as a journalist specializing in choral music.
Mr. Turunen acts as chairman of the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association (FCDA). He was the Choral Conductor of the Year 2008 in Finland.
Barbro Smeds - Project Manager
Barbro Smeds has studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and is a professional Church Musician since 1979.
Barbro is chairman of FSK (Association for mixed choirs with Swedish as their main language in Finland) since 2007 and is also a board member of FSSMF (roughly translated as: Finlands Swedish-speaking Song and Music association).
Barbro conducts mixed and male choir in the greater Helsinki region.
She has worked as curator for the mixed choir Grankulla kammarkör between 1994-2010 and also as curator for Coro Finlandia (a national male choir) 2001-2009.
During the years 2000-2001 Barbro worked as Project Coordinator for the festival of Swedish-speaking music groups. The event that gathered thousands of musicians from all over Finland took place in 2001 in Espoo.