The Avanti! Chamber Orchestra is a Finn ensemble

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 that focuses on contemporary music. The ensemble when it performs varies in size from a solo player to a symphony orchestra. Avanti! Chamber Orchestra won the Gramophone Prize

Gramophone Award

The Gramophone Awards are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry, often referred to as the Oscars for classical music. The winners are selected annually by critics for the Gramophone magazine and various members of the industry, including...

 with their first recording. The Orchestra also holds a music festival of its own each summer.

The organization

Avanti! Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1983 at the initiative of conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.-Early career:...

 and Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a Finnish conductor and violinist.Saraste was trained as a violinist. He later studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula, in the same class as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä...

 and flautist Olli Pohjola. It is an ensemble that varies in size from a solo player to a symphony orchestra depending on the performance. It does not specialize in a particular genre, but they tend to favor contemporary music. One example of this is HumppAvanti!, a collaboration with musician Timo Hietala, which mixed elements of popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 and folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

.

Their first recording earned them the Gramophone Prize from the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).

The orchestra frequently works with leading Finnish conductors and with internationally renowned soloists and conductors such as Heinz Holliger

Heinz Holliger

Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...

, Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...

, Ralf Gothoni

Ralf Gothoni

Ralf Georg Nils Gothóni is a Finnish pianist and conductor. He is also active as a chamber musician, professor, composer, and author. Born in Rauma, Finland he made his orchestra debut at age 15. Besides his worldwide concert career he has made some 100 recordings with major labels...

, Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...

 and Charles Neidich

Charles Neidich

Charles Neidich is an American classical clarinetist, composer, and conductor.-Early career:A native New Yorker of Russian and Greek descent, Charles Neidich began his clarinet studies with his father, Irving Neidich, at the age of eight, and continued them with the renowned teacher Leon Russianoff...

.

Since the late 1990s, the festival has invited a different artistic director each year. These have included Anssi Karttunen

Anssi Karttunen

Anssi Karttunen is a Finnish cellist.Anssi Karttunen's repertoire ranges from the early baroque to the most recent composers. He performs with most world-class orchestras in Europe , Asia Anssi Karttunen (born 1960) is a Finnish cellist.Anssi Karttunen's repertoire ranges from the early baroque to...

, Sakari Oramo

Sakari Oramo

Sakari Markus Oramo OBE is a Finnish conductor.Oramo started his career as a violinist and concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1989, he enrolled in Jorma Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy...

, Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste

Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a Finnish conductor and violinist.Saraste was trained as a violinist. He later studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula, in the same class as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä...

, Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.-Early career:...

, Kari Kriikku

Kari Kriikku

Kari Kriikku is a Finnish classical clarinetist.He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and later with Alan Hacker in England and with Leon Russianoff and Charles Neidich in the USA....

, John Storgårds

John Storgårds

John Gunnar Rafael Storgårds is a Finnish violinist and conductor.Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and continued his violin studies with Chaim Taub in Israel. He was a founding member of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra...

, Magnus Lindberg

Magnus Lindberg

Magnus Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He is currently the composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic.-Education:...

, Jouni Kaipainen

Jouni Kaipainen

Jouni Kaipainen is a Finnish composer.Kaipainen was born in Helsinki. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Aulis Sallinen and Paavo Heininen.- Works for the Stage :...

, Hannu Lintu

Hannu Lintu

Hannu Petteri Lintu is a Finnish conductor.Lintu studied piano and cello at the Turku Conservatory and at the Sibelius Academy. He also studied conducting with Atso Almila, and later with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He took part in conducting master classes with Ilya Musin. Lintu won the Nordic...

, Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer.Kaija Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by...

, Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen

Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...

, Kirmo Lintinen and Seppo Kimanen. Since 1998 the artistic director of Avanti! has been Finnish clarinettist Kari Kriikku

Kari Kriikku

Kari Kriikku is a Finnish classical clarinetist.He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and later with Alan Hacker in England and with Leon Russianoff and Charles Neidich in the USA....

, who was nominated for the Nordic Council

Nordic Council

The Nordic Council is a geo-political, inter-parliamentary forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders without passports for the...

’s Music Prize in 2001.

Summer Sounds Festival

Since 1986, the orchestra has held a music festival of its own every summer in Porvoo

Porvoo

Porvoo is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately east of Helsinki. Porvoo is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from 14th century...

called Summer Sounds. For the earliest festivals, various ideas were pooled with eclectic results. There are still traces of the original concept in the unexpected twists in the repertoire.

The festival presents chamber music, orchestral concerts and events for children with international soloists and conductors. Every year, the artistic director of the festival invites a foreign guest composer to present his or her work to the Finnish audience.

Discography

Kriikku, Luoma, Mälkki, Avanti!

Avanti! presents Humppavanti!

Wennäkoski, Avanti!

Kriikku, Avanti!

Kriikku, Saraste, FRSO, Avanti!

Oramo, Avanti!

Avanti! Quartet CD

Saraste, Avanti!, Bavarian RSO

Saraste, Avanti!

Kriikku, Avanti!

Angervo, Saraste, Salonen, Avanti!

Saraste, Avanti!

Waltari, Niemi, Avanti!

Lintu, Komsi, Avanti!

Kriikku, Karttunen, Avanti! Kvartetti (eng. Avanti! Quartet)