International Trombone Festival (ITF 2003), Helsinki, Finland
by Valtteri Malmivirta
   

Alain Trudel 		At the organizational outset of the International Trombone Festival (ITF 2003), the artistic planning committee envisioned a couple of strong themes. The Nordic trombone playing and music is the strongest theme. We are proud to get very many of the best players from Nordic countries to perform and teach in the same festival. There is nowadays a lot of interesting new trombone music from Nordic countries which we want to present for the participants of our festival. The other theme during the festival is "double shots", which means that there will be a lot of music composed for two trombones or one trombone and one other instrument.
   
There is already a very interesting selection of world class trombone artists. Among them, Christian Lindberg is going to perform with Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and also with unique Trombone Unit 2000 (a group of six Swedish trombonists, which made an unforgettable performance in the last ITF in Denton, Texas in 2002) and Stockholm Chamber Brass, a worldwide well known brass quintet. Alain Trudel is going to play Eine Kleine Posaunenmusik by Gunther Schuller with The Guards’ Band of Helsinki. Legendary Michel Becquet is coming as well to give his special appearance in the festival. The principal trombonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jay Friedman, will give his special "the Singing trombone" master class and perform as a soloist. Benny Sluchin is a very well known contemporary music trombone soloist from Ensemble Intercontemporain, Paris. Niels-Ole Bo Johansen from Danmark is also a well known in contemporary music and highly respected teacher.
Christian Lindberg
British talent Byron Fulcher (Principal trombone of the Philharmonia Orchestra) will also give interesting examples of "British tradition".


Jörgen van Rijen


Dutch virtuoso Jörgen van Rijen will make an appearance at our festival as a soloist and he will also perform with the new significant Dutch trombone ensemble New Trombone Collective. It is a group of nine young talented trombonists of the same generation. During past years they have all made good careers and joined great orchestras and ensembles in Holland. The ensemble includes players like Pierre Volders, principal trombone of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Ricardo Casero, principal trombone of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will give Mediterranean colour in the program. Martneukirchen competition winner Alexander Gorbunov will be introduced as a young talent from Russia.

There will also be very interesting players from Scandinavia making appearances at ITF 2003. Jonas Bylund from Sweden (well-known soloist, chamber musician and teacher), Jesper Juul Sörensen from Denmark (competition winner and principal trombone of the Danish Radio Orchestra), Per Kristian Svensen from Norway (principal trombone of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra) and Jessica Gustavsson (prize-winner of several competitions from Sweden), are playing as soloists and chamber musicians. Ole-Kristian Andersen (played many years at Concertino Palatino), Norwegian sackbut specialist will feature in baroque and renaissance music. The trombone section of the Danish Radio Orchestra will perform in the festival as well. The best Finnish trombone players, like Teppo Alestalo and Kari Sundström, will naturally be introduced in the festival, too. Two very well known Scandinavian teachers Ingemar Roos and Sven-Erik Eriksson will give lectures, master classes and special panel discussions. Ingemar Roos will also organize a Scandinavian trombone ensemble for the festival. Still more artists will be added to the festival program later on.
From the world of jazz, we have a brilliant selection of some of the greatest soloists in jazz. One principle idea of the festival is to combine jazz and classical trombone playing into same concerts and venues. That gives the listener a chance to hear a large scale of different music and see different ways of playing the trombone during the concerts. Besides the schedule in daytime, JUMO Jazz Club will serve as a perfect venue for special jazz concerts with varying artists every evening.
Jiggs Whigham

The main concert of jazz on Friday will feature many of the week’s jazz artists with their favourite music, accompanied by UMO Jazz Orchestra, which is one of the leading professional Big Bands in Europe. There is also going to be a premiere piece commissioned for UMO Jazz Orchestra and two trombones by Antti Rissanen. The list of jazz artists includes the great Jiggs Whigham, New York based trombone virtuoso Conrad Herwig, Bart Van Lier from Metropole Orchestra and Sam Burtis from the Jazz Masters’ Orchestra. Also distinguished players from Scandinavia will be up front this year e.g. Nils Landgren and Bertil Strandberg from Sweden, Steen Hansen from Denmark and Antti Rissanen from Finland. 


In the traditional trombone ensemble category, Weekend Warriors (trombone choir for amateurs) and Cramer Choir (trombone choir for professionals) will be organised and conducted by legendary Denis Wick and professor Heinz Fadle.

There will also be the project for beginners, players who have played trombone only a few years or are total beginners. They will perform with top trombonists on August 9, in the famous Temppeliaukio Church in the same concert with Weekend Warriors and Cramer Choir. Also master classes, special panel discussions and lectures will be in the festival program.

ITF 2003 will be the top event of the year for trombone players. Make now plans to attend and register now online!