Pori Sinfonietta – Pori City Orchestra

Pori Sinfonietta – Pori City Orchestra

The Pori Music Society founded an orchestra in Pori in 1877 out of fifteen amateur musicians playing mostly light and dance music. In 1902 classical music was added to the repertoire.

The Pori City Orchestra, nowadays known as the Pori Sinfonietta, was officially founded in 1938, when the players in the Pori Amateur Orchestra and the Pori Orchestra Society decided to join forces. From the late 1970s on all musicians were full-time professionals.

A lively orchestra of a high standard, the Pori Sinfonietta participates in a variety of events in its home city, the surrounding province and other parts of Finland. The regular conductors have included Arvo Airaksinen, Juhani Numminen, Hannu Koivula, Juhani Lamminmäki and Ari Rasilainen. Conductor Petri Sakari was an artistic coordinator during the season 2005–2006 and Jukka Iisakkila was conductor during the years 2006–2012. Jan Söderblom worked as chief conductor from 2012 to 2016. Janne Nisonen was the chief conductor from 2016 to 2018 and Tibor Bogányi from 2018 to 2024. Erkki Lasonpalo starts his term as chief conductor on spring 2026.

The latest album by Pori Sinfonietta, The River, was released in 2016 on the ALBA records. It includes Selim Plamgren’s piano concertos numbers 1–3.