Jalas Chamber in English
Jalas Chamberwas founded in 1992 as a result of many projects during the Jalasjärvi music courses. A group of professional musicians, students and amateurs were brought together to form an orchestra and to record Finnish music. Besides Finland, the orchestra has given concerts in France, Spain, Estonia, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Moldova, Romania, Greece, Slovenia, Italy and Germany. The orchestra has represented Finland at the Festival of European Youth Orchestras and at the Nordic Music Pedagogue Conference.
In Sweden and Belgium the orchestra represented Finland and the Ostrobothnia region within the European Union culture export project. In 2009 and in 2010 the Jalas Chamber orchestra was awarded the title of Young Culture Ambassador by the Finnish Ministry of Education. The orchestra practises active culture exchange with other orchestras abroad.
The Jalas Chamber orchestra has recorded music by Oskar Merikanto (2000), Toivo Kuula (2002) and Leevi Madetoja (2004). There has also been a music play on each composer’s life. Critics have appreciated the recordings and the music has been used in many TV and radio programs, i.e. Peter von Bagh’s award-winning documentary ”Sininen laulu” (Blue song 2004) on the Finnish culture history. Juhani Numminen has conducted the orchestra ever since it was founded in 1992.
In 2017 and 2018 Jalas Chamber performed Joose Tammelin’s opera Satu Sammosta. It was performed in the Musiikkitalo concert hall in Helsinki and other locations in Finland. At the Aino gala, the production was voted best opera of the year 2017.
Juhani Numminen
Conductor Juhani Numminen (b. 1942 in Turku) is a freelance conductor. He studied the violin and the art of conducting for the most part in Sibelius Academy and the Conservatory of Turku and partly abroad (with S. Parmet, J. Panula, T. Hannikainen, A. Jansons, I. Markevitch and K. Masur).
Juhani Numminen has played the violin in the Philharmonics of Helsinki, Turku and Pori. In Pori he also acted as concertmaster. He has also acted as the conductor of the Opera Association in Turku and the Pori Philharmonics. Numminen is the founder, the first chairman and the artistic director of the Opera Association in Pori. He has conducted orchestras in Hungary, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, Estonia, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Greece, Slovenia, Italy, Russia, Moldova and Romania. He has also acted as a jury member in violin competitions in Russia, Moldova and Romania. 1989-2007 Juhani Numminen was the director of Kankaanpää´s Music Institute in the Northern Satakunta. He has conducted the Jalas Chamber Orchestra for over twenty years.
