~ TAMPERE PHILHARMONIC CHOIR ~
The Tampere Philharmonic Choir was founded in autumn 1990, with backing from the City of Tampere,
Tampere Hall and the Tampere Evangelical-Lutheran Parishes. The motivation was to create a choir that
could represent the City of Tampere and be large enough to perform major choral works.
Heikki Liimola was engaged as artistic director.
Throughout the choir's history it has pursued two parallel lines of repertoire: major choral works with
orchestra, and independent a cappella productions. The Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra is the choir's
most important partner, but the choir has also appeared with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
and the Orchestra of the Estonian Theatre.
A cappella concerts have played an important part in the shaping and development of the choir's sound.
In all, the Tampere Philharmonic Choir has given or appeared in over 80 concerts and dozens of smaller
functions in Estonia as well as Finland. Except for famous choral works, the choir's repertoire also includes
rarities like Belshazzar Oratorio by Georg Friedrich Händel, Robert Schumann's Requiem (both of which
were Finnish premieres), Uuno Klami's Psalmus and Einar Englund's Sixth Symphony.
The choir has contributed to two recordings by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra: the premiere
recording of Sibelius's Press Celebrations Music (ODE 913.2), which received three recording prizes,
and Einar Englund's Sixth Symphony (ODE 951-2), which received the Janne Award of the Finnish
National Group of the IFPI in 2001. The choir's first a cappella recording came out in spring 2002.
The Tampere Philharmonic Choir has an active membership of about 90, most of whom are involved
with music in a variety of ways.
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