Vaasa Chamber Choir (Vasa Kammarkör =VKK) was founded in 1961 by Lars Ryde in Vaasa and was at that time one of the first Chamber Choirs in Finland. The current leader of the choir is Anne Tienhaara. The choir's ideology is to perform music of high class.
In the choir's repertoire has been J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) and J.S. Bach's
Mass in B minor (BWV 232), Mozart's Requiem, Felix Mendelssohn's
Lobgesang, Zoltán Kodály's
Missa Brevis and Haydn's Creation.
The choir has been leading several successful musical events in Vaasa, e.g. a consert with music by Karl Jenkins during Vaasa Choir festival in 2010 with two outsold concerts at the city theatre. A masquerade at the town hall on Valentine's day in 2009 was a success.
The choir has been touring in several countries, a few years ago in Budapest, Hungary 2006 and in 2003 to Llangollen, Wales. In the summer of 2000 the choir participated in a great choir contest in Linz, Austria: 1st Choir Olympics. The choir received two silver medals.
During the years several recordings have been made, e.g. a Jazz Mass in 1997 written by Jan Hellberg for Vaasa Chamber Choir. In June 1998 the choir participated in a recording together with Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Monica Groop. The CD was awarded CD of the year in Finland 1998 by the national public service broadcasting. In 1996 the choir participated in a CD recorded for the 400-year anniversary of Vaasa.
For the concert program Con Passione, with Henry Purcell's opera Dido and Aenas, the choir received in 1994 the title Music group of the year in the Swedish speaking part of Finland (årets finlandssvenska musikgrupp). In the same year Vaasa Chamber Choir got as the first choir the Art Award of Vaasa county. |