Two German wind orchestras are due to visit the Turku Conservatoire next week – joint international concerts are on the programme

German youth wind orchestras and the Turku Conservatoire’s own Aura Wind Band are joining forces for two separate concerts.

The Turku Conservatoire is hosting an exceptionally lively international wind music week next week, when two different German wind orchestras will be performing at the conservatoire. It is a happy coincidence: both German orchestras’ tours of Finland happened to fall in exactly the same week. The Turku Conservatoire’s own flagship wind orchestra, the Aura Wind Band, will be giving concerts alongside both ensembles.

The international orchestra tour brings a total of almost two hundred young musicians from Germany to Turku. In the first joint concert on Monday 24 August at 6 pm in the Sigyn Hall, the Aura Wind Band will be joined on stage by a youth orchestra from the Upper Rhine, known internationally as the Upper Rhine Youth Wind Band. In the week’s second joint concert, the Finnish-German collaboration continues under the title ‘Traveler’ together with the symphonic youth wind orchestra SYWO (The Symphonic Youth Wind Orchestra of the Rheinische Musikschule Cologne), on Thursday 27 August at 7.00 pm, also in the Sigyn Hall.

“The fact that two foreign orchestras are coming here in the same week is a fantastic opportunity for us. It gives our students and the audience a unique chance to experience international orchestral culture, learn from one another and forge links across borders,” says Principal Juha Järvinen.

A collaboration has already been established with the Cologne Music School (Rheinische Musikschule Köln), as composers Ilari Hongisto and Marko Autio from the Turku Conservatoire were members of the jury for the ‘ZettEmm Open’ composition competition, which the school organised earlier this summer. First prize in the competition was shared between Alma Meretoja, a former student at the Turku Conservatoire, for her work *Terminal Lucidity*, and the German composer Franziska Wendland for her composition *Mortales*.

Joint concerts showcase the diversity of modern wind orchestra music and the energy of the young musicians. The Yläreini Youth Wind Orchestra will be performing as early as Sunday 23 August. On the terrace at Kirkkopuisto, alongside the Aura Wind Band from Turku, the Turku VPK Wind Orchestra and the Aura Brass Band, from 2 pm to 6 pm under the title ‘Wind Music in the Glow of the Shadows’.

Admission to all concerts is free.

Information about the event:

Brass music in the glow of the shadows
Time and venue: Kirkkopuisto Terrace, Sunday 23 August 2026, 2.00 pm–6.00 pm
Programme: 2.00 pm Aura Wind Band | 3.00 pm Upper Rhine Youth Wind Band | 4.00 pm Turku VPK Wind Orchestra | 5.00 pm Aura Brass Band

Sons of the Midnight Sun
Time and venue: Sigyn Hall, Monday 24 August 2026 at 6.00 pm
Performers: Upper Rhine Youth Wind Band & Aura Wind Band (conducted by Julian Gibbons and Pekka Lyytinen)
Further information: turunkonservatorio.fi/tapahtumat/sons-of-the-midnight-sun/

Traveller
Time and venue: Sigyn Hall, Thursday 27 August 2026 at 7.00 pm
Performers: The Symphonic Youth Wind Orchestra (SYWO) & Aura Wind Band (conducted by Michael Rosinus and Pekka Lyytinen)
Further information: turunkonservatorio.fi/tapahtumat/abb-sywo-traveler/