Pärnu City Orchestra’s 30th anniversary season will be colourful

Pärnu City Orchestra opens its 30th season with a new work by jazz pianist and composer Kirke Karja entitled Jubilee Fanfare, participates in the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival’s programme in the autumn and brings beloved Estonian musicians to Pärnu.

“The new season of Pärnu City Orchestra is inspired by colours and therefore each concert has a colour-related title. Sea blue, mossy green, crimson red, sunny yellow, bronze black, smoky grey, pearly white, etc. – all these colours suggest very different concert programmes. We perform classical, popular and jazz music. In addition, there will be special concerts for children and young people, and we will continue our cooperation with the Pärnu Music Festival,” says Helen Erastus, director of Pärnu City Orchestra.

The opening concert of the season on 12 October will be called Meresinine (Sea Blue), where Pärnu City Orchestra will premiere jazz pianist Kirke Karja’s new work Jubilee Fanfares. “All jazz musicians have a personal relationship with the blue tone,” notes Karin Sarv, producer of Pärnu City Orchestra, about the concert title. Estonian-Lithuanian piano duo Johan Randvere and Justas Śervenikas will perform as soloists, and the season’s first meeting with the audience will be conducted by the beloved conductor Henri Christofer Aavik.

Pärnu City Orchestra will also continue its successful cooperation with the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, which will be held under the subtitle Suitsuhall (Smoky Grey) in Pärnu Concert Hall on 16 November and in the Estonian National Museum in Tartu on 18 November.

Pärnu City Orchestra will delight its audience with a selection of music performed over the past 30 years. One of the most unique of these is the screening of the silent film La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (1928, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer) with music composed by Tõnu Kõrvits. The concert will be conducted by Risto Joost, and the film will be introduced by critic Tristan Priimägi.

Back in Pärnu, on 29 November, Pärnu Concert Hall will host an evening of popular music called Purpurpunane kolmapäev (Crimson Wednesday), where the Pärnu City Orchestra will join forces with the winner of the Estonian Song Contest Alika Milova and beloved singer Ott Lepland. The concert will provide a unique opportunity to enjoy original compositions by pop artists and beautifully adapted orchestral arrangements of popular songs, with Riivo Jõgi at the conductor’s podium.

On 10 December (the Second Sunday of Advent), the orchestra will perform the concert Sammalroheline linnutee (Mossy Green Milky Way). The soloists are singer Siiri Sisask and charismatic cello virtuoso Marcel Johannes Kits, and the concert is accompanied by Pärnu Chamber Choir (conductor Elo Kesküla) and Tallinn Chamber Choir (conductor Heli Jürgenson). The concert with a plethora of performers will be conducted by Aivo Välja.

The concert series continue in full swing in 2024. Together with the Estonian musicians Selvadore Rähni and Oliver Rähni, who live in Iceland, the Pärnu City Orchestra will give a concert on 28 February in Tubin Hall in Tartu and on 29 February in Pärnu Concert Hall. Pärnu City Orchestra and the members of the ensemble as soloists will give a concert on 17 March at Pärnu Concert Hall. On 5 April, the Pärnu City Orchestra will hold another concert of popular music with soloists and bands from Pärnu. And on 26 April, the Pärnu City Orchestra will be joined by soloists Sepo Seeman and Karin Tammaru, and Risto Lehiste on barrel organ.

During its anniversary season, the Pärnu City Orchestra will also continue to engage children and young people in concert activities and will offer concert experiences to families and young audiences. On 13 January the Pärnu City Orchestra will hold a concert together with the Kersti Adamson Ballet Studio of the Pärnu School of Arts, and on 28 March with soloists from Pärnu County music schools.

The Pärnu City Orchestra’s season will end on 10 May with the concert Pärlvalge (Pearly White), where the colours of the whole season will be summed up and the colourful work of art created during the year will be completed. The soloist will be mezzo-soprano Tuuri Dede and the concert will be conducted by Andres Kaljuste.

Pärnu City Orchestra’s concert tickets are already on sale at Piletilevi, with discounts for students, seniors, music schools and groups. Pärnu City Orchestra is the only professional symphony orchestra in Western Estonia, which has developed and enriched local cultural life and Estonian music culture in general, creating high-level musical experiences for the summer capital, the whole of Estonia and international audiences.