The Republic of Finland is a Nordic country in the northern part of Europe that borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers a total area of 130,559 sq miles, including a land area of 117,304 sq miles, and has a population of 5.6 million citizens who are primarily ethnic Finns. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. Finnish and Swedish are official languages; however, 85% of the population speak Finnish. The land cover is a boreal forest biome, with over 180,000 recorded lakes. In August 2024, I enjoyed performing an extraordinary recital at Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland, which was one of the events during the Lahti Organ Festival. The unusual feature of that evening was the fact that, together with solo organ music, the audience could observe a ballet choreography performed by Atte Kilpinen, the soloist of the Finnish National Ballet, and circus artists Lukas Peurala (unicycle), Salla Santanen and Mika Seppälä (dance acrobatics), Milja Jaskari (circus wheel), and Ada Sainio (handstand/contortion). The article describes the general background of organ building in Finland, the history and the figures of artistic directors of the Lahti Organ Festival, the Sibelius Hall in Lahti and its organ being one of the main venues where the Festival takes place recently, and finally the characteristics of Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri that built the organ at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti.
Organ recital tour: USA-Canada 2025
In May and June 2025, I will visit eight venues in the US and Canada to perform recitals at: 2025/05/18 – USA – Grand Rapids