Art is essential -concert

Celebrate the power of art and music with an enchanting evening of diverse choral pieces, featuring special guests composer Merlijn Angad Gaur and cellist Miriam Kirby.

The Art is essential - concert combines Finnish and international choral pieces composed and arranged for female choir Pihlaja, beloved classics and plenty of Finnish female choral music, along with modern visual, photographic and video art and dance.

The concert offers community spirit and experiences for your senses. The cross-disciplinary concert will also feature local musician-composer Merlijn Angad Gaur on the piano, along with two choral songs he composed for Pihlaja. Both songs, 'Artist' and 'Lives of Clay', are based on the poems of Indian activist-poet Madhu Raghavendra. Madhu R's poem ‘Artist‘ ponders on how the meaning of art is not always understood until art is missing from life. The importance of culture, art and music to our well-being is at the center of the Art is essential - concert.

Female choir Pihlaja was founded in Helsinki in 2003 and the year 2023 was Pihlaja's 20th anniversary. Pihlaja choir, traveling to The Hague in June, has also been at the forefront of the Finnish choral scene for the past year, having received the Finnish Female Choir Union’s ‘Choir of the Year’ recognition. The choir is artistically and skill-wise at a very high level. "Pihlaja's activities are versatile and well-planned, embrasing community, as well as positive and enthusiastic," the Female Choir Union’s assessment said.

The choir has made several music videos and launched various concert concepts in recent years. "The Choir of the Year title has brought extra motivation and opened up new opportunities for cooperation. With the nomination, we have received new interest outside of Finland as well," says Pihlaja's artistic director Karla-Maria Toiviainen. Toiviainen's work as a promoter of Finnish female choir music, culture and arts in the Netherlands is widely known, as she acted as the artistic director of the Finnish Female Choir TAIKA in The Hague from 2012 to 2020. After moving back to Finland, Toiviainen was chosen as the artistic director of Female choir Pihlaja at the beginning of 2021.