Spring 2024
Sunday 14/01 Afternoon of Fauns: Faraway Echoes
Sunday 11/02 Afternoon of Fauns: Night Life
Saturday 07/04 Afternoon of Fauns: Memories in Music
Sunday 13/04 Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra presents: Crossings (G Livelab)
Sunday 05/05 Afternoon of Fauns: Spring Dreams
Afternoon of the Fauns
The Tampere Philharmonic’s Afternoon of Fauns chamber music series has offered our listeners intimate concert experiences since 1996. In the Sunday concerts, you can enjoy the chamber music ensembles of the orchestra’s musicians.
Compared to the grand symphony orchestra concerts, the atmosphere is more intimate: in a smaller hall, you can observe the musicians closely. The host of the Afternoon of Fauns concerts is the Tampere-based composer Minna Leinonen.
Brief History of the Chamber Music Series
For more than twenty-five years, Tampere has been enjoying a chamber music series hosted by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. The name of the concerts, Afternoon of Fauns, has changed a few times, but the idea remains the same: you get to listen to intimate music in the small auditorium of the Tampere Hall about once a month on Sunday’s afternoons. The name Afternoon of Fauns was chosen from a contest among the musicians 20 years ago.
These concerts started because both – musicians and the audience – wanted it. In the early 1990’s, the Orchestra and its supporters organized ‘Evening of Surprises’ chamber music concerts inspired by the newly built small auditorium in the Tampere Hall. By 1996, these occasional concerts became a regular series due to the active participation of musicians and the audience group. At the beginning, the clarinettist Jarmo Hyväkkö organized and hosted the concerts.
For a long time, Jouni Kaipainen, a composer associated with Tampere Philharmonic (1956–2015), was the main host. The Afternoon of Fauns series still relies heavily on the musicians – the programs and performers are chosen based on suggestions and initiatives of the musicians. A very special point about these concerts is their intimacy: when both the audience and the performers are smaller in number, the music feels closer.