Lappeenranta City Orchestra

Lappeenranta City Orchestra

The Lappeenranta City Orchestra, now in its second century, is a dynamic driving force in the province of South Karelia. The Lappeenranta Friends of Music Association founded in 1909 immediately set about forming an orchestra that was highly active up to the First World War. Not until after the Second World War, in the late 1940s, did the orchestra take on a new lease of life, under its legendary conductors Martti Similä, Jouko Tolonen and others. In 1980, while Mauri Hannikainen was its conductor, it became a professional string chamber orchestra maintained by the municipality. By the end of the decade it was able to hire some full-time wind players, too.

The orchestra’s Artistic Directors have been Ari Rasilainen, Ari Angervo, Pertti Pekkanen, Hannu Norjanen, Jan Söderblom, Tibor Bogányi and Vytautas Lukočius. Erkki Lasonpalo begins as Artistic Director from the beginning of the year 2020.

With 21 regular players, the Lappeenranta City Orchestra is an active “mini-sinfonietta” that sometimes expands with the help of extras and co-projects into the Saimaa Sinfonietta.