Vantaa Orchestra

Vantaa Orchestra

The Vantaa Orchestra has 65 professional players. Its conductor and Artistic Director since 1988 to 2009 was Markku Johansson, under whom it has profiled itself as the only symphonic line-up in Finland specialising light music. Its roots do, however, stretch back more than half a century to 1948, when it went by the name of the Tikkurila Orchestral Society.

The Orchestra has so far released 16 albums in all, one of which (Varastetut helmet, 1998) has qualified for a Finnish platinum and one (Joulun ihme, 2001) for a gold. The lastest record “Let’s Face the Music” was released in February 2014. Orchestra’s home is the Martinus Cultural House in Vantaa and it frequently tours to other parts of Finland. Concert productions by the Vantaa Pops are televisioned regularly.

Members of the orchestra can also be heard in the most varied of smaller ensembles, from jazz quartets to a salon orchestra. The Vantaa Pops also performs classical repertoire to order, in which case it calls itself the Vantaa Orchestra.