TCM: Opening Concert – A Celebration of Mozart

The opening concert features pianists Heini Kärkkäinen and Natacha Kudritskaya, accompanied by the TCM Sinfonietta conducted by Tiina Kaukinen.

Date 19.01.2026 19.00

VenueTampere University, Kalevantie 4, Tampere

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Tampere Chamber Music -festivaalin avajaiskonsertti: Kuvassa Heini Kärkkäinen ja Natacha Kudritskaya

Event info

Tickets 25 €
Seniors 20 €
Students, youth ja children 10 €
Family ticket (incl. 2 adults ja 2 children) 60 €

Tampere Chamber Music’s Opening Concert celebrates Mozart

“During anniversary years, one tends to look back on the past. In 1976, when I was ten years old, my first piano teacher, Dmitry Hintze, gave me a sheet of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, KV488, as a Christmas gift. Just over a year later, I had the opportunity to perform the concerto as a soloist with the Jyväskylä City Orchestra. The experience was unforgettable: to feel the heart-touching beauty, sensitivity, and vitality of Mozart’s music, supported and enriched by the warm sound of the orchestra. In a way, it was my first encounter with chamber music—I was able to communicate with the orchestra. I still remember the smiling, friendly faces of the orchestra members and the wonderful orchestral interludes. Within a couple of years, I also performed the F minor concerto with the same orchestra. These works have left a profound mark on me, both as experiences and physically.

Throughout my life, I have noticed that I keep playing them in my mind and with my fingers. The harmonies and melodies have remained not only in my emotional memory but also deeply lodged in my brain. How amazing is a child’s memory, and how strongly it is organized in the brain! These reflections have fascinated me and were one of the main reasons for founding the festival. The rich dialogue between art and science helps us understand, also through scientific means, what music can give a person and how it affects us across our lifespan. Making music together and finding inspiration increases children’s wellbeing and supports them throughout life.

While planning the anniversary year, the idea of the TCM Sinfonietta was born, where young people, together with the festival’s artists and conductor, can experience meaningful moments and create lasting memories. When I founded the festival in 2017, I wanted to create opportunities to bring music to young people as something that enhances wellbeing and clarifies values, so that a musician could transform difficult and challenging experiences, as well as physical obstacles and problems, into strengths in a natural way.

The University of Tampere’s Main auditorium as the concert venue wonderfully enhances the possibility to explore the cross-pollination of art and science. Warm welcome to all!”

Heini Kärkkäinen
Artistic Director, Tampere Chamber Music Festival

Performers:

TCM- Sinfonietta
Tiina Kaukinen, conductor
Heini Kärkkäinen, piano
Natacha Kudritskaya, piano

The concert lasts approximately 2 hours, including an intermission.

Subject to change.

Production: Tampere Chamber Music

This concert is part of the Tampere Chamber Music Festival and the University of Tampere’s Light of Knowledge event.

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Programme

W. A. Mozart (1756–1791): La finta giardiniera, K. 196 – Overture
W. A. Mozart (1756–1791): Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
Soloist: Heini Kärkkäinen, piano

Intermission

W. A. Mozart (1756–1791): Serenade No. 12 in C minor, K. 388 – 1st Movement: Allegro
W. A. Mozart (1756–1791): Piano Concerto No. 19 in F major, K. 459 Soloist: Natacha Kudritskaya, piano

Performers

Heini Kärkkäinen studied piano at the prestigious Sibelius Academy under Professor Liisa Pohjola from 1984 to 1991 (Master of Music) and furthered her studies with teachers including Ralf Gothóni and Jacques Rouvier (Paris). She won the Ilmari Hannikainen Piano Competition in 1984 and placed second in the Maj Lind Piano Competition in 1986.

Kärkkäinen has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Keski-Pohjanmaa Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. She also appears extensively in Europe and the United States as a chamber musician.

She collaborates closely with chamber musicians including Robert Cohen, Priya Mitchell, Réka Szilvay, and Yuval Gotlibovich.

Heini Kärkkäinen has participated in numerous international festivals, such as Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Oxford Music Festival, Holstebro International Music Festival, Pärnu Music Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Charleston Manor Festival, and Caceres Music Festival.

She has premiered a large number of contemporary Finnish works, including compositions by Jouni Kaipainen, Mikko Heiniö, Magnus Lindberg, Aulis Sallinen, Olli Koskelin, Marzi Nyman, and Outi Tarkiainen.

Kärkkäinen has recorded several award-winning albums. A duo recording with Jan-Erik Gustafsson (Ondine) received Yleisradio’s “Record of the Year” award in 1994. A recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’ music (BIS Classics) was selected as BBC Music Magazine’s Album of the Month in March 2007 and recommended by Gramophone magazine. Other recordings include a Sibelius album with Pekka Kuusisto (Ondine) and Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion (RSO/Jumppanen/Oramo/Warner Classics).

Alongside her solo career, Heini Kärkkäinen has taught piano at Tampere University of Applied Sciences since 2010, serving as a lecturer from 2024. Her teaching also includes chamber music and pedagogy.

In January 2017, Kärkkäinen founded an international chamber music festival in Tampere combining music and wellbeing. The Tampere Chamber Music Festival brings together leading international musicians and lecturers in an event that explores holistic human wellbeing and the health benefits of music. The festival has been warmly received in Tampere.

Pianist Natacha Kudritskaya studied at the Kyiv National Tchaikovsky Music Academy under Irina Barinova and Igor Riabov, as well as at the Paris Conservatory. Important mentors in her musical development have included Alain Planès, Jacques Rouvier, Ferenc Rados, and Henri Barda. In 2009, Kudritskaya achieved success in competitions and was invited to perform at major festivals and prestigious concert halls, including the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Vienna Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Gstaad Festival, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.

Kudritskaya also performs regularly in Ukraine. The events of 2014 gave her return to her homeland a new significance, and since then she has toured extensively across the country. The music of Rameau marked a turning point in Kudritskaya’s piano technique, and she has dedicated two albums to the composer. In 2015, she signed a contract with Universal Music. Her album Nocturnes was released under the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Tiina Kaukinen holds a Master’s degree in Music from the Sibelius Academy, majoring in viola, and also studied orchestral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She has conducted, among others, the Tampere Philharmonia, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO), PMO Sinfonia, JAMK Campus Sinfonietta, TAMK Orkesteriakademia, Tampering Ensemble, and Pirkanmaa Young Symphonists.

Kaukinen works at the Pirkanmaa Music Institute as a lecturer in violin and viola and as an orchestra conductor. At Tampere University of Applied Sciences, she serves as the principal teacher of string pedagogy and as a visiting instructor in orchestral conducting. She enjoys working with youth orchestras and actively develops orchestral programs at PMO.

The TCM Sinfonietta, created for Tampere Chamber Music’s 10th anniversary, consists of wind instrument students from TAMK Music and string players from the Pirkanmaa Symphony Strings.

Pirkanmaa Symphony Strings is an orchestra of the most advanced string students at the Pirkanmaa Music Institute. Its ranks also include enthusiastic current and former students from other institutions. The orchestra performs its own concerts several times a year and has developed a broad audience base. Symphony Strings has also toured abroad to countries such as Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Estonia.

Once a year, Symphony Strings expands into the Sinfonietta together with PMO wind players. Soloists performing with the Symphony Strings and Sinfonietta have included soprano Marjaana Ritanen, tenor Heikki Hattunen, and pianist Tuomas Salokangas. Tiina Kaukinen has served as the artistic director of Pirkanmaa Symphony Strings since 2011.