HGM2006

Social Events

The Welcome Reception and Conference Dinner are always enjoyable opportunities to relax, meet old friends, and make new ones.

Welcome Reception

The Welcome Reception will held on 31st May at 19:15 in the Winter Garden, Helsinki Fair Centre.

Civic Reception

HUGO are grateful to the the City of Helsinki for hosting a civic reception for HGM2006 on 1st June in the Helsinki City Hall. 20:00-21:30

Conference Dinner

Conference Dinner tickets are included with all registration fees except Young Scientist/Student fees. The conference dinner will be held on 2nd June at the Helsinki Opera House and is always a superb evening. Numbers are limited, but additional tickets may be available from the Registration Desk on site, priced £55 (55 pounds sterling). Drinks Reception at 19:30 for Dinner at 20:00.

Entertainment by Värttinä - www.varttina.com

"An unbeatable 'world-beat' combination: traditional music, given a contemporary twist and a post-modern point of view." - Rolling Stone

Värttinä is Finland's most successful contemporary folk music group, now celebrating their twenty-third year and the release of their eleventh album MIERO. Värttinä's roots are in the Karelia region of Finland, specifically women's vocal traditions and ancient poems known as runos.

Fronted by three female singers and supported by six acoustic musicians, Värttinä composes most of their music and lyrics, based on traditional Karelian and other Finno-Ugric styles but with modern and thoroughly distinctive and original arrangements.

Since 1990, Värttinä has toured internationally and built a solid reputation as one the most inventive and uncompromising ensembles in the contemporary world music arena.

Fiona Talkington, BBC 3 Late Junction, said of the group; "Värttinä has seemingly unstoppable creative energy. They thrill, surprise and amaze audiences all over the world." New York's Newsday described their music as "a gale-force musical attack...beautifully poignant tunes...exotic but accessible, complex but exciting" and from Billboard magazine; "exquisite beauty...groundbreaking yet steeped in tradition, definitely Finnish, yet worldly."

Songlines Magazine (UK) voted their tenth album "iki" one of the "Top 50 World Music Albums You Should Own" and Utne Magazine (USA) voted Värttinä one of the "World's Most Soulful and Exciting Artists of 2003". The new album MIERO is the first of a two album deal with Peter Gabriels Real World Records. Värttinäs latest achievement is the role of co-composer for the stage adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with Toronto World Premiere in March 2006 and the London West End premiere in spring 2007.

Susan Aho, vocals
Mari Kaasinen, vocals
Johanna Virtanen, vocals
Janne Lappalainen bouzouki, soprano saxophone
Markku Lepistö, accordions
Lassi Logren violin, jouhikko
Jaakko Lukkarinen drums, percussion
Hannu Rantanen, double bass
Antto Varilo guitars, stringed instruments

Jaakko Ryhänen, a bass of global stature

The Finnish bass Jaakko Ryhänen was born in Tampere and became an elementary school teacher before turning his attention towards a musical career. He studied in Helsinki, Copenhagen and Rome and made his opera debut in 1972 as a guest with the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki where he has been a permanent ensemble member since 1975. In his home country he is also a regular guest at the Savonlinna Opera Festival each Summer.

His international career commenced in 1981 when he made his Bolshoi Opera debut as Banquo in Verdi's Macbeth and was furthered in 1983 when he sang in a performance of Joonas Kokkonen's The Last Temptations presented by the Finnish National Opera at the Metropolitan Opera New York.

During his career Jaakko Ryhänen has sung in all the leading opera houses around the world including Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, La Scala, Bolshoi Theatre, the Marinski Theatre, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Leipzig, Zürich, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Paris, Chicago Lyric and Los Angeles. The Bayreuth Festival featured him as Daland in a new production of The Flying Dutchman in 2003 and he has been performing in this role since.

His repertoire includes most of the leading bass roles such as Boris Godunov, Gremin, Sarastro, Osmin, Leporello, Komtur, Hunding, Landgraf, Fiesco, Ramphis, Rocco and Basilio. Jaakko Ryhänen has won special renown for his interpretations of Filippo II in Verdi's Don Carlo and Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer. In this part, he also made his celebrated debut at the Bayreuth Festival in the new and quite spectacular Klaus Guth production of 2003, with Marc Albrecht conducting.

Recently, Mr Ryhänen has dedicated himself especially to his concert and recital activities as well as to teaching. His extensive repertoire includes the sacred vocal works of Bach, Bethoven, Dvorak, Haydn, Händel, Mozart, Rossini and Verdi. These and other works have been performed in the great concert halls around the world with conductors of such calibre as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Gennadi Rozhdestvenski.