Avanti! Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1983 by among other the conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. It was founded to satisfy a need for high-quality ensemble in Finland, not least to perform the contemporary music and other rare repertoire that would otherwise remain unperformed. Over the years the orchestra has become one of the most active ambassadors of Finnish music abroad, and International engagements now take the orchestra regularly around the world.

Avanti! is an orchestra that varies in size from a solo player to a symphony orchestra. It specializes in no particular genre; rather, it is proud to be a specialist in all styles with a strong sense of responsibility for the music of today.

Avanti! takes pride in working out clear concepts for their concerts. The orchestra restrains from cross-over concerts, and focus on making concert that are relevant and focused – for instance playing music with a strong political element.

Programming is essential for Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, but so is the duty to reach out to the audience. The atmosphere at an Avanti! concert is casual and relaxed, and in the NewAud project the orchestra wanted to experiment with the idea of setting music to the everyday life of the audience.

The concerts of Avanti! resulted in the following resources:

Avanti! Playing classical music with children

The Finnish ensemble Avanti! Chamber Orchestra played a unique concert with no less than 60 children on stage – all playing the clarinet. Celebrating their cooperation with the Helsinki Conservatory, the ensemble wanted to engage young children in the world of new music – not only as an audience, but as contributing participants in a professional concert. This document in brief describes the concept of the concert.