Lahti Symphony Orchestra opens the Bremen Music Festival with Saraste on 2 September 2006

The Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, opens the Bremen Music Festival (Musikfest Bremen, Germany) at the concert hall Die Glocke on Saturday, 2 September 2006. The soloist in the Piano Concerto by Grieg is Boris Berezovsky, the winner of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition 1990. In the programme there are also e.g. the following works by Sibelius: Symphony No.2, Scènes historiques No. 1 and Belshazzar’s Feast.

The 17th Bremen Music Festival is held on 2-24 September 2006. The other performers of this year’s festival include pianist Hélène Grimaud, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, jazzkeybordist Joe Zawinul, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées (cond. Philippe Herreweghe) and Mahler Chamber Orchestra (cond. Daniel Harding)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the exceptional conductors of his generation. He brought the music of Scandinavian composers such as Kaja Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg and Esa-Pekka Salonen to greater prominence in the active concert repertoire. With the beginning of the 2006/2007 season, Saraste will start his new position as Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously he has been Music Director of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.  Recent engagements have included the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and the Orchestre National de France.