From 17 to 21 November, Jakobstad will become a meeting place for internationally acclaimed artists, young musicians and innovative art as Rusk Chamber Music Festival returns under the theme A Sparkling Future – Young & Immortal. This year, the festival is making its biggest investment yet in children and young people, featuring a children’s choir of around 90 fourth-graders, a joint orchestral concert with Vivo and Vaasa City Orchestra, and a programme in which classical music meets contemporary composition, Celtic folk music and virtual reality.

In the November darkness, Jakobstad will be filled with new light as Rusk Chamber Music Festival brings together musicians and audiences from near and far. Over five days, the festival will present around 15 concerts and events, ranging from major orchestral works and intimate chamber music performances to family programmes, art exhibitions and unexpected musical encounters.

This year’s theme, A Sparkling Future – Young & Immortal, looks towards the future with hope and curiosity. In a time marked by uncertainty, Rusk wants to highlight the courage, energy and creativity of young people – and remind us that art can bring people together across generations.

“Never before has Rusk invested so intensively in children and young people, even though we collaborate with the city’s educational institutions every year,” says Anna-Maria Helsing, the festival’s Artistic Director.

She sums up this year’s ambitions with a firm belief that Rusk is heading towards a brilliant and sparkling future.

90 children and 70 musicians – the future finds its voice

This year’s major investment in young people is evident both in the festival’s educational activities and on the concert stage. Initiated and led by Berit Cardas, a children’s choir of around 90 fourth-graders from Jakobstad has been formed. The children will perform at Thursday’s concert, Unending Theme, where they will experience music-making as part of a larger artistic context and share the stage with the festival’s professional musicians.

The festival week culminates on Saturday, 21 November, with the closing concert Young & Immortal. Finland’s leading youth symphony orchestra, Vivo, joins Vaasa City Orchestra, conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing. Together, the orchestras will bring around 70 musicians to the stage, with internationally acclaimed young cellist Senja Rummukainen as soloist.

The programme features Antonín Dvořák’s beloved Cello Concerto No. 2 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 – grand Romantic works that give young musicians the opportunity to experience the professional orchestral world at close quarters.

“Giving young people access to music and art is one of the most important things we can do for future generations,” says Vertavo in its message to the festival audience.

Lisa Streich challenges our ears

This year’s featured composer is internationally acclaimed Lisa Streich, whose musical world exists at the intersection of the organic and the mechanical. Through subtle experiments with sound and unexpected sonic landscapes, she encourages listeners to pause and listen more attentively – a welcome counterbalance to everyday life filled with noise and a constant stream of impressions.

At the opening concert on Wednesday, 18 November, her Play Time for bicycle and percussion trio will be performed. Thursday’s concert, Unending Theme, features Prima for rotating flautist and light, while on Saturday Vertavo performs her string quartet Sternenstill. Several works on the festival programme will receive their Finnish premieres.

Rusk brings this new music into dialogue with works by composers including Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. By exploring different composers’ music and artistic expressions, the festival aims to show how tradition and innovation can enrich one another.

Vertavo shares artistic leadership

One of this year’s major developments is that the Norwegian string quartet Vertavo will share Rusk’s artistic leadership with Anna-Maria Helsing for the first time. The internationally acclaimed quartet, comprising Øyvor Volle, Annabelle Meare, Berit Cardas and Bjørg Lewis, brings new Nordic connections and a shared commitment to exploring the possibilities of chamber music.

Vertavo sees the festival as a place where established and emerging artists can meet, and where music helps bridge both generational divides and the passage of time.

“Music is one of humanity’s truly immortal gifts. It connects us across generations, carries our stories into the future and reminds us of what we share as human beings,” the quartet says.

From Celtic folk music to virtual reality

Rusk is a festival where musical boundaries are meant to be stretched. On Thursday, 19 November, Scottish folk duo Chris Stout on fiddle and Catriona McKay on Celtic harp join Vertavo and other Rusk artists for Living Future – A Voyage on the North Sea. After 30 years of making music together, the duo takes its musical traditions into new landscapes in a performance full of rhythm, virtuosity and sheer joy of playing. Admission is free.

Friday’s programme includes Caroline Shaw’s Boris Kerner, in which cello meets flowerpots, as well as Felix Mendelssohn’s virtuosic String Octet. The festival also takes music beyond traditional concert halls, with performances at venues including Malmska gården, Station 23 and Kuddnäs.

Saturday’s free family concert, Hello, Future!, opens the doors to the world of chamber music for younger audiences. Lilla Rusk, organised by the Wava Institute on Tuesday, 17 November, also offers free admission.

The festival’s artistic encounters extend beyond the concert halls. In the exhibition Crinkly Crumpets – ASMR VR, Leena Jääskeläinen invites audiences into a colourful virtual reality where abstract animation meets ASMR sound. The result is a playful and relaxing experience that encourages visitors to pause and explore sound, colour and sensory impressions in a new way.

A festival that brings people together

Rusk is closely connected to the arts and music education programmes at Campus Allegro. During the festival week, students will have the opportunity to meet international artists through masterclasses, workshops, artist talks and concert introductions. Audiences are also invited to join conversations and encounters around this year’s theme, including a panel discussion on Thursday, 19 November.

The discussion brings together futurist Niko Herlin, festival Artistic Director Anna-Maria Helsing, Vertavo cellist Bjørg Lewis and young cellist Artturi Aalto. The conversation will be moderated by author and music journalist Minna Lindgren. The panel discussion takes place in the Campus Allegro foyer and admission is free.

For Anna-Maria Helsing, Rusk is about making international music and art accessible locally. Audiences do not need to travel far to discover new musical worlds – the festival brings them to Jakobstad.

With A Sparkling Future – Young & Immortal, Rusk aims to create space for curiosity, inspiration and confidence in the future. Here, children and adults, students and masters, tradition and innovation come together. And in the November darkness, music demonstrates its power to unite people and illuminate the future.

Rusk Chamber Music Festival takes place in Jakobstad from 17 to 21 November 2026.

More information and programme: https://ruskfestival.fi/en/

Tickets: https://www.netticket.fi/

Contact:
Anna Hagen-Smeds, Executive Producer
anna.hagen-smeds@jeppis.fi
+358 50 347 3332