Aura Sinfonia, the joint symphony orchestra of the Turku Conservatoire and Puolalanmäki Music Upper Secondary School, will give a concert in the Sigyn Hall on Wednesday 7 October at 7.00 pm. The concert programme features Augusta Holmès’s ‘Interlude – La Nuit et l’Amour’, the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 93. The concert will be conducted by Olli Vartiainen, and the piano soloist is Neea Vesa, a student on the vocational programme at the Turku Conservatoire.

The theme of the concert centres strongly on renewal and pushing musical boundaries. All three of the evening’s composers – Haydn, Beethoven and Holmès – challenged the conventions of their time and paved the way for a new form of expression.

This musical evolution spans the structures of the Classical period to the emotional richness of the Romantic era. Joseph Haydn laid the foundations for the transition from Bach’s time to Beethoven’s, and his body of work combines uncompromising quality, elements of surprise and skilful innovation in form of expression. Beethoven, for his part, elevated symphonies and concertos to the highest level of music by uncompromisingly pushing boundaries.

– Haydn and Beethoven present a fascinating contrast. Haydn was a more practically minded innovator, whose inventiveness and, at times, downright anarchic humour shaped musical expression in a way that paved the way for the transition to Romanticism. Beethoven, for his part, stormed ahead towards a new era in composition without regard for boundaries and cemented the notion of the relentless compositional genius, explains conductor Olli Vartiainen.

Augusta Holmès, who composed the concert’s title piece, is one of a group of female composers from the second half of the 19th century who, in their day, were often relegated to the margins of history and consigned to desk drawers due to societal barriers.

– Holmès is a fantastic example of courage and tenacity. Despite the fact that circumstances were stacked against female composers, she followed her calling and created a colourful, deeply emotional and personal style. Her works stand up very well in comparison with those of the male composers of her time, emphasises Vartiainen.

Olli Vartiainen was awarded his PhD from the Sibelius Academy in 2010 with a thesis on conducting a student orchestra. He works as an orchestra conductor and violin teacher at the Turku Conservatoire and as an arts teacher at the Sibelius Academy. Vartiainen has conducted student orchestras in countries including France, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Russia, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. As an educator in his field, he has taken part in numerous professional development courses, including those organised by Pirkanmaan Pinta, and has undertaken several teacher exchanges at the CNSMDP Conservatoire in Paris.

Jenni Kankaro

Neea Vesa (born 2006) began playing the piano at the age of six at the Turku Conservatoire. Neea’s first and longest-serving teacher was Anne Vähäkuopus. Neea is currently studying on the vocational programme as a pupil of Pasi Helin. During her vocational training, Neea has taken part in numerous masterclasses, including those led by Paavali Jumppanen, Henri Sigfridsson, Antti Hoti and Anna Laakso. Neea has taken part in the Pianoaura competition twice and won a gold medal in the Finnish WPTA (World Piano Teachers Association) competition in 2025, where she was awarded an invitation to perform at Uusi Paviljonki in Kauniainen.