TURKU -- The Turku Music Festival, founded by the Musical Society of Turku in 1960, is set to open its 2024 edition on 8 August with an interesting musical proposal curated by artists from Florence.

  The festival has evolved into a diverse urban event with a wide range of excellent music, including large orchestral concerts, chamber music, recitals, jazz, open-air events and children's concerts. The guest list includes Finnish and foreign artists every year. The current artistic director is Klaus Mäkelä; his predecessors include Ville Matvejeff, Topi Lehtipuu, Olli Mustonen and Martti Rousi.

  The opening concert features a multinational lineup of music by Gioacchino Rossini, Camille Saint-Saëns, Franz Schubert and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, taking the audience on a wonderful musical journey.

  The city of Turku is twinned with a network of 13 cities across Europe. Turku and Florence have been twinned for over 30 years. The Turku Music Festival celebrates this relationship with a touch of class, bringing cellist Ettore Pagano, principal conductor Diego Ceretta and one of Italy's top orchestras, the Orchestra Della Toscana, from Florence to perform a concert in Turku.

 The program of the Festival, which ends on August 29, is as follows:

  Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868): Une larme (A Tear), theme and variations for cello and strings

  Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33

  Allegro non troppo – Allegretto con moto – Tempo primo

  Franz Schubert (1797–1828): Overture 'in stile italiano' No. 1 in D major D.590

  Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1807–1847): Symphony No. 4 in A major op. 90 'Italiana'

  Allegro vivace - Andando con moto - Con moto moderato - Saltarello: Presto

  Founded in Florence in 1980, the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT) is considered one of the finest orchestras in Italy. Its 44 musicians are also divided into various chamber music ensembles that perform in Tuscany in addition to their home base, the historic Teatro Verdi. The ORT's artistic director is Daniele Spini and its principal conductor is Diego Ceretta. The orchestra performs regularly throughout Italy and in some of the world's leading concert halls, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, and venues in Hong Kong and Japan.

  The ORT has collaborated with artists such as Salvatore Accardo, Martha Argerich, Rudolf Barshai, Yuri Bashmet, Frans Brüggen, James Conlon, Myung-Whun Chung, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Daniel Harding, Eliahu Inbal, Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Pahud, Daniele Rustioni and Uto Ughi. The ORT's repertoire includes works from the Baroque to the present day, with a focus on contemporary music, which the orchestra regularly performs at the Venice Biennale and the Strasbourg Music Festival.

  Diego Ceretta, Principal Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana, studied violin and conducting (with Daniele Agiman) at the Milan Conservatory, graduating with top marks. After making his debut as conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana in 2016, he has conducted several orchestras in Italy (including the Sanremo and Città di Grosseto Symphony Orchestras and the Ecomusic Big Band, which he also conducted on tour at Carnegie Hall in New York). He has conducted the world premieres of several operas, including Federico Ghedini's Billy Budd and Alberto Cara's La notte di Natale. In the 2023-2024 season, Ceretta conducts concerts with the Orchestra della Toscana in Italy and abroad, as well as performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Regio in Parma. He will also appear as a guest conductor with La Toscanini in Parma, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona, the Orchestra Sinfonia Siciliana, and the Orchestre National de Montpellier.

  Cellist Ettore Pagano (born 2003) is known for having won the Anna Kull, Johannes Brahms and Khachaturian international competitions. He began his studies at the age of 9 with Riccardo Martinini, graduating with honors from the Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome in 2021. In 2022 he obtained a diploma from the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona under the guidance of Antonio Meneses. Pagano has performed in major halls in Italy and Europe, as well as at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Croatian Radio Orchestra, the Graz Philharmonic Orchestra, the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, the Euro Symphony Orchestra SFK and the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 he recorded music by De Falla, Cassadò, Popper and Tchaikovsky for Musikstrasse.

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