Lahti Symphony Orchestra

Over the past two decades the Lahti Symphony Orchestra – under the direction of its chief conductor Osmo Vänskä (1988-2008) – has emerged as one of the most highly regarded orchestras in the world. In 2008-2011 the orchestra's artistic advisor – and artistic director of the Sibelius Festival – was Jukka Pekka Saraste. Okko Kamu began as the orchestra's chief conductor and – and artistic director of the Sibelius Festival – in the autumn of 2011.

As the most highly commended Nordic orchestra for its recordings (including a Grand Prix du Disque in 1993, Gramophone Awards in 1991 and 1996, the Cannes Classical Award in 1997 and 2001, the Midem Classical Award 2006 and the Diapason d'Or de l'Année in 2011), the Lahti Symphony Orchestra has been a welcome guest at major international venues. It made its first major tour of Japan in 1999, prompting Japanese critics to name it as the best foreign orchestra to perform in Japan that year. Also in 1999, the orchestra made a successful début in the Avery Fisher Hall in New York. In the wake of these successes, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra was invited to return to Japan in 2003 and 2006, and to the United States in January 2005 (e.g. Ann Arbor and the Avery Fisher Hall in New York). Sibelius’s Kullervo, which the orchestra performed in Tokyo, was voted by Japanese critics as the best classical performance of 2003 in Japan. In addition, the same Japanese critics ranked the best orchestras in the world and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra – ranked sixteenth – was the only Nordic orchestra in the top twenty.

The orchestra made its début at the BBC Proms in London and in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 2003, and at the Vienna Musikverein in the autumn of 2005. The orchestra was reinvited to the Musikverein and had three residency concerts there in the February–March 2007 as well as at the Berlin Philharmonie. The orchestra has also performed in several other European countries to great critical acclaim. In addition the orchestra made a successful tour in China in 2005 and performed at the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg.

Encouraged by the success of its recording of original version of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, which won a Gramophone Award in 1991, the orchestra has made imaginative Sibelius performances its hallmark. It has also engaged in a close and fruitful cooperation with its composer-in-residence Kalevi Aho, who has composed five symphonies and several other works for the orchestra. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra has recorded much of Aho’s extensive orchestral œuvre. Almost without exception, the orchestra’s recordings have garnered praise from the international press, as have nearly all of the more than 60 recordings which the orchestra has made for BIS Records.

As a tangible result of its business partnerships, a new concert hall – the Sibelius Hall – was inaugurated in 2000. Designed by Artec Consultants of New York, the acoustics of the main hall have drawn admirers from all over the world. The opening of the Sibelius Hall gave the orchestra and the opportunity to launch the world’s first annual Sibelius Festival dedicated to the music of the great Finnish master. The Festival has quickly established itself as a major musical event and today attracts audiences from all five continents.