Ensi vuoden festivaaliohjelmasuunnitelmamme alkaa olla jo viimeistelyä vailla valmis. Jälleen ovat monet kansainväliset ja suomalaiset huippumuusikot saapumassa vieraaksemme. Tulossa on upea musiikkitapahtuma. Vanhaan tapaan kesä-heinäkuun taitteeseen ajoittuvan festivaalimme erityisvieraana tulee olemaan Harkovan oopperan ja teatterin sinfoniaorkesteri, joka tulee 30- henkisessä kokoonpanossa esiintymään kolmessa konsertissa; Forssassa, Nuutajärvellä sekä Jokioisten kartanonpuistossa. Puistossa 1.7.2023 järjestettävässä perinteisessä piknik-konsertissa orkesteria johtaa sen ylikapellimestari Dmytro Morozov ja sen solistina on sopraano Mari Palo. Kartanonpuiston piknik- konsertissa esiintyvät myös puolustusvoimien varusmiessoittokunta solistinaan Forssan naisvoimistelijat sekä mainio viihdeorkesteri Happy Groove.
Tällä hetkellä päääosa Harkovan oopperan orkesterista on Slovakiassa, missä se harjoittelee ja mistä käsin se tekee esiintymismatkoja ympäri Eurooppaa. Osa muusikoista on edelleen Harkovassa, missä he esiintyvät pommisuojissa, metroasemilla ja muissa väestötiloissa tuoden iloa ja toivoa sodan keskellä olevien ihmisten hätään.
Kharkiv Opera Symphony Orchestra as special guest of our summer festival
Next year's festival programme is about to be finalised. Again, many top international and Finnish musicians are scheduled to be our guests. It's going to be a great musical event. As in the past, the special guest of the festival, which will take place in the middle of June and July, will be the Kharkiv Opera and Theatre Symphony Orchestra. It will give three concerts in Forssa, Nuutajärvi, and Jokioinen Manor Park with a 30-piece line-up. In the traditional picnic concert in the park on 1 July 2023, the orchestra will be led by its chief conductor Dmytro Morozov with soprano Mari Palo as soloist. The picnic concert will also feature performances by the Defence Forces Reserve Band with the Forssa Women's Gymnastic Group and the fine Happy Groove entertainment orchestra.
Most of the Kharkiv Opera Orchestra is currently based in Slovakia, where it rehearses and from where it performs throughout Europe. Some of the musicians are still in Kharkiv, where they perform in bomb shelters, metro stations and other public spaces, bringing joy and hope to the plight of people in the midst of war.
Concerts are planned for every day of the Southwest Tavastian Music Days 2023 summer festival. In addition to the churches that have become familiar over the years, the Villa Forss will serve as a new venue, and will also become the central setting for the festival.
The main building of Jokioinen Manor will also serve as a new venue, where concerts will take place. Quartetto di Cremona from Italy, one of the world's elite string quartets will have a concert there.
Quartetto di Cremona will also play at the Nuutajärvi Glass Warehouse and at Villa Forss, where the programme includes f.e. the premiere of Kalevi Aho's string quartet number 4 that is commissioned by Southwest Tavastian Music Days.
The festival's opening concert will be held on Thursday 28 June at Villa Forss, with violinist Linda Hedlund with her friends. The same venue will also host the deepest tradition of the Southwest Tavastian Music Festival, the Summer Evening Jazz event with the Summer Evening Allstars ensemble that is the traditional ensemble of this event.
The jazz- program of the festival will be complemented by Jukka Linkola´s The Tentet ensemble that will take the stage at the Forssa Workers' House.
Other familiar performers at the festival include the Finnish Baroque Orchestra's FIBO Players with Meeri Pulakka as vocal soloist, and the concert venue will be Tammela Church.
For the second time, the Folk Music in the Folk Park event will once again bring together a comprehensive line-up of some of the biggest stars in Finnish folk music, including Värttinä, Tallari, Petri Hakala & Timo Alakotila, Sväng and Piirpauke, whose founder Sakari Kukko turns 70 on the day of the event on 8 July. Talented and skilled kantele player Hanna Ryynänen will also participate the event.
The concerts of the Lounais-Häme Music Days will be part of Jokioinen 150th anniversary of the municipality and in Tammela, part of the 600th anniversary of the municipality.