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Helsinki’s concert calendar is full of film music, from small-scale tributes to large orchestral productions. This column looks at what sets these concerts apart, and how they turn music audiences already know into the promise of something new.

In the mid-20th century, only a tiny portion of Finnish classical music was available on records. The massive Fennica anthology aimed to change the situation. The operation was met with never-ending struggles and bad luck, but its consequences reached far beyond the records themselves. Janne Mäkelä tells the story of Fennica and how the project helped transform recording practices at Yleisradio.

A new era began at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki in 2024 when its concert organ was inaugurated. The instrument is now heard nearly every week and has given rise to a vast number of new creations. Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen talked to Mioko Yokoyama, one of the composers inspired by the new organ, and organist Jan Lehtola, who played a vital role in bringing the instrument to life.

A new anthology recording conceived by Anu Komsi and Sakari Oramo invites writer-director Aleksi Barrière to reflect on Kaija Saariaho’s lifelong quest to find and control time.

Sugar Factory (Sokeritehdas) is a new programme developed by the Finnish National Opera and Ballet with the support of the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Its aim is to explore new forms of contemporary opera and bring new artistic voices into the field. The programme’s first four short operas premiered in mid-August 2026.

Without saying so explicitly, Helsinki’s Flow Festival honoured the Finnish jazz centenary with a dazzling array of improvised sounds in mid-August.

Artistic excellence has long been associated with sacrifice, blurred boundaries and demanding hierarchies. But what if safety, empathy and social awareness were understood as part of artistic excellence itself? Drawing on lessons from the University of Galway, Anna Ramstedt argues that consent education should become part of higher arts education.

What kinds of works emerge when a composer’s source material consists of choristers’ own poems, drawings and reflections? Jag är fri (“I Am Free”), selected as Finland’s Choir Recording of the Year 2025, offers one possible answer. The second album by the Finnish Youth Choir brings together four commissioned works that are different in style yet grow from a common foundation, guiding the listener toward the search for one’s own voice.

One hundred years ago, Jean Sibelius received a commission from New York that resulted in Tapiola, his final major orchestral work. Thirty-five years have passed since FMQ published a previously unknown letter in which Sibelius advised conductor Arthur Rodziński on the interpretation of the score. Together, they provide an opportunity to reflect on how Tapiola was first received in America.