Helsinki Chamber Choir, Iris Oja, Contempoartensemble & Nils Schweckendiek
Biography Helsinki Chamber Choir, Iris Oja, Contempoartensemble & Nils Schweckendiek
Iris Oja
The Estonian mezzo-soprano Iris Oja was born and educated in the Estonian capital Tallinn. Since 2000 she has been contralto soloist in the world-famous Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. She is increasingly in demand as a soloist and has appeared in oratorios and masses by among others Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Pergolesi, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Her opera roles include Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin and Mamma Lucia in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana. In 2008 Iris Oja’s first solo CD was released with Russian songs by Rachmaninov and Shostakovich, accompanied by Roger Vignoles and released by Harmonia Mundi.
In the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir she has particularly sung works by Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Toivo Tulev and other living Estonian composers. Her interest in contemporary music has prompted many composers to write works especially for her. To cultivate her interest in contemporary music she is a member of the ensemble Resonabilis, which also included the Estonian folk instrument the kannel.
Although in the classical context Iris Oja sings mezzo-soprano or contralto, she prefers simply to be called a singer. “I have sung soprano, contralto, countertenor and even tenor – it isn’t so important to divide up voices in that way. It’s just a matter of singing what is necessary. In fact it’s quite simple if you love music!”, she says herself.
The composer uses these words of Iris Oja: “She has strengths in all registers and a quite extreme flexibility in her voice. And nothing is beyond her! She sneers, groans, screeches and howls – and sings bel canto with a silvery, moderated vibrato, when that’s what is needed. She is a fantastic discovery.”
The Helsinki Chamber Choir (Helsingin kamarikuoro)
was founded in 1962 as the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir and assumed its current name in 2005. It is currently Finland’s only professional chamber choir.
While its wide-ranging repertoire includes music from the Renaissance to the present day, the Helsinki Chamber Choir is particularly highly regarded for its work with new music. The choir regularly commissions new works and has given over 80 world premieres in the seasons since 2005, as well as more than 30 Finnish first performances.
The choir appears frequently at festivals in Finland and abroad and collaborates with symphony orchestras, period-instrument ensembles and contemporary music groups. Its concerts are regularly broadcast on national radio and television, and it has also appeared in productions for the Arte channel and the European Broadcasting Union, among others with Einojuhani Rautavaara's Vigilia in 2013.
The Helsinki Chamber Choir is a member of Tenso, the European network of professional chamber choirs. Recent touring has taken the choir to the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Russia and around Scandinavia.
The choir records regularly among others for BIS Records. Its recording of Magnus Lindberg's Graffiti (with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo) was nominated for a Grammy in the contemporary music category in 2010. Northlands with music by Matthew Whittall was the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Record of the Year 2017. During its days as the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir, the group recorded a number of CDs for the Ondine label, including Rautavaara's complete works for mixed a cappella choir.
Since 2007 Professor Nils Schweckendiek has been Artistic Director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir. In recent years the choir has also worked with guest conductors including Rinaldo Alessandrini, Anne Azéma, Tim Brown, Aapo Häkkinen, Pasi Hyökki, Fredrik Malmberg, Andrew Parrott, Kaspars Putniņš, Rachid Safir, Ralf Sochaczewsky, Eric-Olof Söderström and James Wood. The choir has also worked with conductors like Olari Elts, Oliver Knussen, Hannu Lintu, Jan Söderblom, Andres Mustonen ja Sakari Oramo.
The Finnish Radio Chamber Choir’s principal conductors were Harald Andersén, Kaj-Erik Gustafsson, Ilmo Riihimäki, Eric-Olof Söderström and Timo Nuoranne. The first artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir was composer Kimmo Hakola.
Nils Schweckendiek
studied music at Clare College, Cambridge, and orchestral and choral conducting in Freiburg and Helsinki. Since making his highly successful debut at the Finnish National Opera with Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier in 2006, he has performed with orchestras, ensembles and choirs in many European countries, the United States and China, and appeared at numerous opera houses and festivals, including the Leipzig Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Nils Schweckendiek is committed to performing the music of our time and has conducted around 100 first performances, including music theatre, orchestral, choral and ensemble works. He has made a number of critically acclaimed CDs for the BIS, Toccata Classics, Alba and ICSM labels, winning several awards.
Since 2007 Nils Schweckendiek has been Artistic Director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir. In 2014 he was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and from 2017 he has been Artistic Director of the Choir of the Helsinki Music Centre.
Recent guest conducting has included the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, Oulu Sinfonia, Seinäjoki Orchestra, RIAS Kammerchor, Chamber Choir Ireland, the Croatian Radio and TV Choir, Coro Casa da musica in Porto and the North German Radio Choir in Hamburg. In 2020 the Society for Swedish Literature in Finland awarded him the Fredrik Pacius Prize for his services to Finnish music.
