The Kymi Sinfonietta launched a new artistic planning policy in collaboration with two Artistic Partners in Autumn season 2023. These partners has addressed various aspects of the orchestra as befits their own genres and expertise, together with the orchestra’s management and the program committee. The first two Artistic Partners have been Topi Lehtipuu and Jukka Perko. Topi Lehtipuu, tenor and conductor, has primarily fostered the orchestra’s vocal and early music know-how, and Jukka Perko, jazz musician and saxophonist, its performance of jazz and rhythm music. Kymi Sinfonietta has appointed conductor Nathanaël Iselin as its Artistic Partner from the autumn season 2026 onwards. Jukka Perko’s work as the orchestra’s second Artistic Partner will also continue in the future. Going forward, the orchestra will therefore have two Artistic Partners, Iselin and Perko.
Topi Lehtipuu is one of Finland’s most individual artists. An extremely versatile and a highly-skilled tenor and stage performer, he is renowned for repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary creations. He also enjoys a career as artistic consultant and curator and was Director of the Helsinki Festival from 2015 to 2018, and of Turku Music Festival from 2010 to 2015. Developing as a conductor in recent years, he appears regularly with orchestras in his native Finland, where his creative and versatile approach to a wide range of repertoire is highly valued. Of his new Artistic Partner role he says “Artistic planning is a multi-dimensional process. Kymi Sinfonietta is embarking on a new planning model, based on a dialogue which combines the orchestra’s collective know-how with the conductor’s vision. This resonates perfectly with my own way of thinking, and I am excited to join the orchestra as Artistic Partner at this pivotal moment of their development. It is a joy to collaborate and make music with their wonderful musicians.”
Jukka Perko was still only a teenager when he first made a name for himself in jazz circles at Pori Jazz in summer 1986. The very next year he was invited to join the 70th anniversary tour band of legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Perko is famous for his numerous highly-acclaimed line-ups and broad repertoire as the guest soloist with big bands and symphony orchestras. He is also Artistic Director of the Viapori Jazz Festival and, with violinist Elina Vähälä, of the Oulu Music Festival, and he teaches at the Sibelius Academy. Perko and the Kymi Sinfonietta have collaborated numerous times over the years. “One of the best things about playing with the Kymi Sinfonietta has,” says Perko of his forthcoming contract with the Kymi Sinfonietta, “been that in addition to hitting the right note together, we have always found a common beat. There must be something in the tap water of jazz-city Kotka and Kouvola. It will be a special pleasure and privilege to begin working with the orchestra as an Artistic Partner. And I’m not just saying this to be polite, because I come from the other side of Finland.”
French-born Nathanaël Iselin won the prestigious Jorma Panula Conducting Competition in 2021, at which time he was also awarded the orchestra’s special prize. Iselin has conducted, among others, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Opéra Orchestre Montpellier, and the Stockholm Folkopera. He has also served as Resident Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. By background, Iselin is a percussionist and pianist. Iselin’s studies in orchestral conducting have taken place at the Sibelius Academy (under the guidance of Sakari Oramo), the Paris Conservatory, Zurich University of the Arts, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He has studied with and assisted renowned conductors such as Susanna Mälkki, Mariss Jansons, Michael Tilson Thomas, Antonio Pappano, Vasily Petrenko, Thomas Søndergård, and Jaap van Zweden. During his studies in Paris, Iselin became deeply familiar with and fond of French Impressionism and works such as Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Ravel’s La Valse; in Finland, he developed a love for the music of Sibelius.