The Finnish town of Pietarsaari, better known as Jakobstand, in the western Finnish province of Ostrobothnia is the host of the Rusk Chamber Music in Jakobstad, the festival which takes place from November 22 to 26, 2022. The repertoire of the Festival, on November 23 and 24, also includes the works of the Croatian composer Dora Pejačević: Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 40, Waltz-Capriccio for piano, Op. 28, Meditation for Violin and Piano, Op. 51 and Impromptu, op. 9b, which will be performed in Finland for the first time! Among the interpreters we also find some of the world’s most respected artists, such as the Swedish pianists Mårten Landström, Johan Ullén, and the violinist Christian Svarfvar.

Although autumn in Finland is not traditionally a particularly popular time for music festivals, the Rusk Chamber Music in Jakobstad, as they say, “is a melting pot in which creativity is unleashed in exotic contexts at the darkest, bleakest time of the northern year”. The festival was founded in 2013 by clarinettist Christoffer Sundqvist and composer Sebastian Fagerlund, who both served as the festival’s artistic directors from 2013 to 2019. In 2020 conductor Anna-Maria Helsing was appointed as new artistic director of Rusk.

The Finnish audience will have the opportunity to hear the works by Croatian Woman Composer Dora Pejačević: Piano Quintet in B minor, Op. 40 at a concert entitled Heavenly Creatures on November 23,  interpreted by Christian Svarfvar (violin), Aleksander Koelbel (violin), Mina Fred (viola), Senja Rummukainen (cello) and Johan Ullén (piano). The following day (November 24), the prominent Swedish pianist Mårten Landström will play Dora’s Waltz-Capriccio, op. 28 and the composer’s Meditation, op. 51 in a duo with violinist Christian Svarfvar. Finland’s Jakobstad will be among the first in the world to have the opportunity to hear a public performance of Impromptu, op. 9b by Dora Pejačević, which Croatian Music Information Center published last year and thus almost completed its publishing catalog with the entire oeuvre of Dora Pejačević’s works!

Photo: Official poster of the Rusk Chamber Music Festival