Red Nose Company & Meta4: Voces – Intimate Voices

Information

Tickets €52, discounted tickets €48

Discounted tickets: pensioners, students, the unemployed, theatre professionals, journalists (with press card), those completing military or civilian service, as well as groups of at least eight people and customers purchasing tickets to at least eight different Tampere Theatre Festival performances.

Duration approx. 2 hours 15 minutes, including an intermission.

Recommended for adults.

Performance language is Finnish. Subtitles are available in Swedish and English via a mobile app.

A concert performance for two clowns and a string quartet at Tampere Theatre Festival

Acclaimed talents from theatre and classical music come together when the award-winning actor duo Timo Ruuskanen and Tuukka Vasama are joined by the string quartet Meta4.

Voces moves and surprises. The most beautiful classics of chamber music are intertwined with theatrical storytelling, and themes of life and death are explored through a dialogue of seriousness and lightness.

The performance is built around Jean Sibelius’s string quartet in D minor, “Voces intimae”. While composing this quartet, Sibelius was diagnosed with a throat tumour, which deeply influenced his writing.

Death – and the fears associated with it – form the thematic core of this performance. Throughout history, esotericism and the secret sciences have inspired artists in their search for deeper meanings in life – meanings that elude clear definition.

Alongside Sibelius and Beethoven, contemporary music is heard by composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Arvo Pärt and Max Richter. Erika Turunen’s delicate costumes complete the experience.

“Masterful performers completely captivated the audience.” – Helsingin Sanomat, Vesa Sirén

Audience comments

“Heartwarming, playfully engaging with something profound. 10++++”
“So beautiful and moving!”
“Magnificent, sacred and funny!”
“Voces showed how music can take consciousness deep into the mind. The brilliant combination of clowns and chamber music carried the listener along.”
“Red Nose Company entertains and surprises! Stunningly executed, fearless, and so diverse in its artistry!”

Voces premiered in summer 2025 at Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival with Meta4 and at Meidän Festivaali with the Kamus Quartet.

Artists

Artistic planning:
Timo Ruuskanen ja Tuukka Vasama (Red Nose Company), Terhi Paldanius (Kamus) and Minna Pensola (Meta4)

Script, direction, actors:
Timo Ruuskanen and Tuukka Vasama

Musicians:
Meta4: Antti Tikkanen, Minna Pensola, Atte Kilpeläinen, Tomas Djupsjöbacka
Kamus Quartet: Terhi Paldanius, Jukka Untamala, Jussi Tuhkanen, Petja Kainulainen

Costume design:
Erika Turunen

Music by:
Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Ida Moberg, Arvo Pärt, Kaija Saariaho, Bryce Dessner, Max Richter, Krishna Nagaraja, Gabriella Smith, Lotta Wennäkoski

Production:
Red Nose Company, Meta4, Kamus, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and Meidän Festivaali

Supported by the Niilo Helander Foundation and the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.

Changes are possible.

Production by Tampere Theatre Festival and Tampere Hall