Musica nova Helsinki, Finland’s biggest contemporary music festival, has given both its ambiance and its repertoire a makeover. This year it strikes to the heart of Manhattan.

“I’ve now moved back to Helsinki from New York, since the Second World War one of the leading cities in the arts and a melting pot of different perspectives,” says Musica nova Helsinki’s Artistic Director Johan Tallgren. “The theme of this year’s festival is especially appropriate now that the US has just elected its first African-American President. Just as the glass walls of the Manhattan skyscrapers reflect one another from sometimes unexpected angles, so the Musica nova concerts mirror topical social issues.”

The New York conceptual artist, writer and musician Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid is a pioneer of DJ culture. His world-touring remix multimedia work The Rebirth of a Nation questions D.W. Griffith’s classic film The Birth of a Nation (1915) via DJ culture. Ears Open composers and video artist Tuulia Susiaho then take a look at Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) from a Finnish perspective.

For the duration of the festival the Korjaamo Culture Factory is running a video installation titled New York is Now, a collage of the city’s recorded history. DJ Spooky will be talking about the collection of essays Sound Unbound edited by him, in which artists from different fields address the making of art in remix cultures. The opera Lovers of Mankind, produced by the University of Technology, likewise exploits the potential of digital sound and image processing. Set in the IT world of the near future, it features both cool jazz tones and urban rage.

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), now making its European debut, has made a considerable name for itself as one of the most dynamic contemporary music ensembles in New York and Chicago. Its Nueva York concert is a tribute to the pluralism of this great metropolis. On the programme for its other concert is the challengingly virtuosic Undersong by Jason Eckhardt, with the ICE’s internationally-acclaimed Tony Arnold as the soprano soloist.

Also over from New York is Marilyn Nonken, a leading representative of the young US pianist generation. One of the items on the programme for this concert is the world premiere of The Four Seasons by Liza Lim.

There’ll be no holding the punters at the late-night Korjaamo clubs. The ICE-Factory evening will be devoted to Downtown, electronics and improvisation in NYC spirit, while a liberal-minded cellist will perform strictly contemporary music from the United States and Europe at Juho Laitinen’s nova Factory club. Galvanising the audience on the third evening will be Billy Harper, a sax man from New York drawing on black spiritual music.

At the opening concert, Come Out, Avanti! provides urban snapshots such as Andy Warhol might have immortalised with his camera Downtown. The evening culminates in the premiere of Intermission from the Warhol opera Flash Flash by Juhani Nuorvala and Juha Siltanen.

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is bringing along the Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett co-production Neither, one of the most original works in operatic literature. Petra Hoffmann is the soprano soloist in this first performance in Finland.

The concerto Velinikka by Sampo Haapamäki, a Finnish composer of international acclaim studying in New York, receives its first hearing in Finland in a concert called Central Park at Twilight by the Tapiola Sinfonietta. Among the works to be performed by Hanna Kinnunen (flute) and Lily-Marlene Puusepp (harp) is Elliott Carter’s Mosaic, at a concert of the same name.

A festival focusing on the Big Apple would not be complete without Charles Wuorinen, chamber works by whom will be performed by students from Turku.

Musica nova Helsinki 2009 culminates in a Rothko Chapel concert by the Helsinki Chamber Choir. Morton Feldman’s tribute to a friend who committed suicide bears the name of the Houston sanctuary available to people of every belief. The concert beginning with a song without words ends with a language invented by Charles Bernstein and Brian Ferneyhough.

Also on the festival programme are numerous free events. During the opening weekend there will be American and Finnish music at Look & Listen Helsinki art gallery concerts by Helsinki Metropolia music students. The musical fairytale Haapaneitty, Mettäntyttö is a fine introduction to contemporary music for tiny tots. There will also be talks and meetings with artists, updated details of which will be posted at these pages.

In addition to concerts the festival features talks and meetings with artists, details of which will be regularly posted on this site. The brand new Musica nova Helsinki brochure is now available at libraries, cafés and the organisers’ offices in the Helsinki region, or you can download the brochure, the programme and Johan Tallgren’s foreword in PDF format by clicking on the link on the right.