The Helsinki Chamber Choir spring season 2026 programme published!
The Helsinki Chamber Choir begins its third decade with classical masters and bold modernism!
Celebrating its 20-year journey in 2025, the Helsinki Chamber Choir steps into a new decade with a diverse programme. The spring season culminates in the world premiere of Armas Launis’s forgotten work.
The Helsinki Chamber Choir’s spring season 2026 opens with a series of free concerts in January and February. Lähelle (“Up Close”), a project carried out together with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, brings Baroque music to schools, care homes, libraries, and other community venues across Finland. On this fourth edition of the outreach tour, performances will take place in Forssa, Tammisaari, Helsinki, Nurmes, and Mäntyharju. In March, the Lähelle concert tour continues with a larger ensemble performing in the churches of the same municipalities and cities. At the heart of these concerts is Heinrich Schütz’s Auferstehungshistorie - an Easter-themed work of quiet, concentrated intensity.
The Lähelle project, running until the end of 2026, aims to support nationwide access to culture by bringing performances by a professional baroque orchestra and chamber choir to regions where such events are rarely available.
The Easter theme continues on Thursday, 2nd of April 2026, when the Helsinki Chamber Choir performs in the Tapiola Sinfonietta’s Easter Concert, conducted by Peter Whelan - an expert in period performance - who takes on one of the great Baroque challenges: Bach’s Mass in B minor.
On Friday, 15th of May 2026, the Helsinki Chamber Choir performs for the first time with the Vaasa City Orchestra. The concert features an intriguing combination of music by Einojuhani Rautavaara and Ludwig van Beethoven under the direction of Nils Schweckediek. The concert is part of the Vaasa Choir Festival.
On 22nd and 23rd of May 2026, the Helsinki Chamber Choir continues its major project to perform and record all a cappella choral works by Fredrik Pacius, often called the father of Finnish music. Following the women’s and mixed-choir works, this is the second of three programmes featuring male-choir repertoire, focusing on songs inspired by spring and nature. The concerts are conducted by Nils Schweckediek.
The Helsinki Chamber Choir’s spring season reaches its peak on 2nd of July 2026 with the world premiere of Armas Launis’s previously unperformed television opera Les flammes gelées – Frozen Flames. The work has slumbered in archives since its composition in 1957, and the choir is proud to finally bring this long-awaited and significant piece to the stage in collaboration with the Armas Launis Society, Raekallio Corp, and the Urkuyö ja Aaria Festival.
Explore the spring 2026 season programme in full.