The joint symphony orchestra of the Turku Conservatory and Puolalanmäki Music High School will give a concert in Sigyn Hall on Wednesday 29 April at 19.00. The concert is called ‘Ikara’, after the piano concerto to be premiered. The composer of the piece, Alma Meretoja, will play the piano solo and Olli Vartiainen will conduct the orchestra.

Aura Sinfonia’s concert productions have often been exemplary in their diverse collaborations. The fact that a work by a young piano and composition student at the Conservatory is performed in a concert with the Conservatory’s own orchestra is remarkable in itself. The production will also feature French violinist Olivier Pons, who will perform Niccolo Paganini’s Violin Concerto No 1 Op 6 and give a violin masterclass to our students during the rehearsal period. In addition, Pirkanmaan Pinna, which organises further training in orchestral conducting, will hold a conducting course with Atso Almila.

Alma Meretoja has won prizes in the Turku Conservatory Composition Competition 2025, Georges Bizet Composition Competition 2024 and Pianoaura Piano Competitions 2019 and 2023. Alma has been composing since the age of 9 and her works have been performed at numerous events, including the Ars Moriendi Festival, the Leevi Madetoja Piano Competition and concerts at the Sibelius Museum. Piano Concerto No. 1 “Ikara” is 21 minutes long and is Meretoja’s first work for symphony orchestra.

Alma studies piano and composition at the Turku Conservatory under the guidance of Maria Männikko and Ilari Hongisto. She has also participated in several piano masterclasses with teachers such as Anna Laakso, Henrik Sigfridsson and Olli Mustonen. He also received guidance from Marko Autio in the composition of the piano concerto. Alma was selected in the spring 2026 student selection for the composition course at the Sibelius Academy.

“The concert is a post-modernist ensemble that draws inspiration mainly from late Romanticism, Neo-Romanticism, Impressionism and Neoclassicism. The form is freely imaginative, intuitive and at times restless,” says Alma. “The first part, Aika, begins in a mysterious fog, but moves through moments of beauty to violent swirls and back again – time and its passage signify to me something overwhelming, larger than man, incomprehensible, frightening and beautiful. The second part, Kajo, is a small moment of relief at dawn, which turns into a cruel, wounding light. The last movement, Polte, focuses on passion, love and obsession, although the melancholic undertone present throughout the concerto remains”, says the composer about his work.

Violinist Olivier Pons describes Paganini’s First Violin Concerto as a joyful, exciting and demanding work and considers it one of Paganini’s best compositions. Pons has been playing the concerto since he was 16 years old and describes practising it in all its rigour as a lifelong process. “It’s simply amazing,” says Pons. He finds Paganini’s violin concerto and playing the violin fun and enjoyable, and that’s what he wants to share when he performs and teaches.

Aura Sinfonia’s concert will also feature Frans Schubert’s Overture in stile italiano and Uuno Klam’s Merikuvia. The concert in Sigyn Hall on Wednesday 29 April at 19.00 is free of charge.