Tampere Vocal Music Festival

Bringing together choirs and vocal ensembles, the Tampere Vocal Music Festival celebrates its 50th anniversary on 11–15 June 2025. The Artistic Director of the Festival this year is composer, arranger and educator Merzi Rajala, a pioneer in choir conducting in rhythm music.

The cornerstones of the Festival are, as always, the Chorus Review and the Contest for Vocal Ensembles. These bring dozens of choirs and vocal ensembles from Finland and abroad to Tampere. Both events culminate in a Concluding Concert, where an international jury hands out prizes in the Contest or merit awards in the Chorus Review. The finalists of the Contest for Vocal Ensembles are 12 groups from Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, and Finland. For the Chorus Review, 55 choirs from Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Norway, The United States, and Finland have signed up.

This year’s international guest performers at the Tampere Vocal Music Festival are Les Itinérantes from France and Vokalensemblen VoNo from Sweden. Les Itinérantes are the Grand Prix winners in the Contest for Vocal Ensembles at the Festival in 2023, where they charmed the jury and audience alike with their virtuoso singing. Vokalensemblen VoNo brings a production titled Earth Call, inspired by young voices protesting the misuse of natural resources.

The Finnish guest performers this year are vocal ensembles Juurakko and Flok & Friends. Juurakko presents a production titled Suon sylissä [In the bosom of the bog], a collection of wonderful, fun and weird experiences of nature underpinned by scientific observations. Flok, the best ensemble in the amplified category in the Contest for Vocal Ensembles in 2023, appears with its guest stars.

The Festival programme further includes an international choral project titled Choirs for Ecocide Law. In a panel discussion at the music department of Tampere’s main library the Ecocide Law is discussed by Finnish author Anni Kytömäki and MEPs Ville Niinistö and Sirpa Pietikäinen. This is followed by a concert programme devised for this project, performed by multiple choirs and soloists. The concert is conducted by Merzi Rajala.