The Programme Tent Offers Music, Poetry and Strong Interpretations
1.6.2016
The Programme Tent will rise in August 2nd as part of Tampere Theatre Festival already for the 17th time.
The atmospheric venue at Tampere Central Square will be the setting for eight evening performances and one afternoon concert.
In the opening night the Programme Tent audience is taken to the streets of Paris. Noora Kiili’s Chanson D’Amour is a concert woven of evergreen French chansons. Alongside the vocalist, the ambience is created by the Chanson D’Amour orchestra of Finland’s top musicians: Mika Huusari (accordion), Lauri Yrjölä (guitar), Petri Mäkiharju (contrabass) and Harri Heininen (drums).
Sir Elwoodin Vieraskirja, a six-member band playing the sound with rough edges and undertones of sweet longing gives a late-night performance on Tuesday. Lyricist Ilpo Tiihonen’s texts merge with Elwoods’ smoky, husky jazz bar sound. The band was formed by vocalist Juha Lehti and guitarist Jussi Virtanen.
The Wrong Kind of a Man is a buoyantly amusing autobiographical evening of songs performed by Kristiina Halttu, an actress of the Finnish National Theatre. Late on Wednesday night the stage is taken by Poetry Band who has their own, original way of moving on the interface between poetry and music, recitative and sung words.
Actress Tiina Weckström and musician Jussi Tuurna’s evening of songs To This We’ve Come fills the Tent with powerful emotions. The artists create a musical moment at a crossroad in life when the past, the present and a touch of the future are all there.
To celebrate poet Lauri Viita’s 100th anniversary, composer-musician Eeva Kontu forms a new orchestra for the Programme Tent. Lauri Viita’s poems, as well as evergreens of “manserock” (Tampere rock scene) and Finnish pop music, get unexpected renditions in honour of The Great Nocturnal Happening on Thursday.
There’s no Programme Tent without Kaj Chydenius! This year the composer brings to the Tent an evening of songs Kevätöistä unta performed by Oona Airola and Jussi Chydenius. On Friday late at night Music Theatre Kapsäkki performs scriptwriter Eppu Nuotio and composer Jukka Nykänen’s musical Lintukoto, a tale of Finns living in this fast-changing land on Europe’s periphery.
The Programme Tent audience also has the chance to enjoy an afternoon concert when a ten-member musical ensemble Lada Nuevo ends the festival week. The band thaws out hearts chilled by the Northern winds with their Slavic-Balkan mentality.