Turku Philharmonic Orchestra

The roots of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra stretch back to the year 1790 and the founding of The Musical Society in Turku. The oldest orchestra in Finland – and one of the oldest in the world – the Turku Philharmonic was taken over by its host City in 1927. At the time it had 29 players, as against 74 today. Maestro Leif Segerstam has worked as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra from 2012 to May 2019. The title of Honorary Conductor of the orchestra was appointed to Segerstam in May 2019. The orchestra’s home composer is Mikko Heiniö.

The orchestra´s principal guest conductor from 2017 to 2022 is international star violinist and conductor Julian Rachlin. Nationally and internationally renowned as a top artist, conductor, pianist and composer Olli Mustonen has been named as the new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. Mustonen has taken up his new role on 1 January 2021.

The orchestra has been on tour to Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Germany, Hungary and China. It released its first record in 1979. Favourite Finnish Classics (1995) and Karita's Christmas (2002) both merited a platinum disc. Conductor Juha Kangas and the Turku Philharmonics won the EMMA award for Classical Album of the Year for their recording Transient Moods – Rajatiloja, published in 2009, with music by P.H. Nordgren. In 2019, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra won International Classical Music Awards –award for Best Collection with recording of Jean Sibelius´ Incidental Music, recorded under the baton of Leif Segerstam.

Side by side with the weekly symphony concerts, the orchestra’s chamber music ensembles perform in the historical venues of Turku and the beautiful archipelago. The orchestra also puts on concerts for the whole family and takes regularly part in opera productions. Also, Turku Philharmonic works with accessibility questions and is leading the way in Finland on the field of Internet concerts. The orchestra streams live concerts on its website on a monthly basis.