Snellman Hall 9 a.m.
Vingenkatu 18

For Kokkola elementary school students

Music from Finland, Sweden and especially the High Coast area of Sweden.

Jörgen Sundeqvist, Päivi Mettälä and Julia Hansson.

Sold Out

10 a.m. Kokkola, Kuusikummun palvelutalo

12 p.m. Kokkola, Tervakartano

1.15 p.m. Kokkola, Honkaharjun palvelutalo

2.45 p.m. Kruunupyy, Sandbacka vårdcenter

Seppo Lankinen plays and sings in senior communities. Waltzes, tangos, schlagers and old favorites are on the program, as well as some story-telling.

Seppo Lankinen is an artist-in-residence with the Drake Arts Center.

Pettersborg, Kansakoulunkatu 17 10.30 a.m.

Emeliehemmet, Sairaalakatu 11 2 p.m.

Julia Hansson plays and sings.

Free admission

Campus Allegro, Pietarsaari 12 p.m.
Kauppiaankatu 10

Jörgen Sundeqvist and Päivi Mettälä perform a lunchtime concert.

From Kramfors, Jörgen Sundeqvist is well-known in the Nordics both as a teacher and solo artist when it comes to the accordion. He’s toured the world, among others in Russia, the United  States, Kanada, New Zealand.

Päivi Mettälä is a prize-winning master player who’s performed both as a soloist and with orchestras in Finland, Sweden and Italy.

Free admission

Rosson kulma 6-10 p.m.
Isokatu 4

Step out of the cold and into the sauna – it’s ready and waiting for you on Rosso Corner. And when you can’t stand the heat, a cooling tub of water awaits. And if that weren’t enough, you can also enjoy some Karaoke – right in the center of our city. Our two hot tubs provide a cozy bathing experience and our “his and hers” dressing rooms are warmed. They’re also carpeted, so you won’t freeze your toes off. As twilight falls and the city lights appear, the scent of the sauna makes its way around the city. Our sauna director Seppo Lankinen welcomes you.

Free admission

Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory 7 p.m.
Pitkänsillankatu 16

The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra
Chapel Master: Anna-Maria Helsing
Soloist: Sonja Vertainen, Janne Valkeajoki: accordion

World premiere for Aulis Sallinen’s new work.

The concert will be featured live on YLE Radio 1.

Before its independence, in 1809, 400-year-old Kokkola has at times belonged to Sweden and Russia. This history can be heard in Swedish Dag Wiren’s romantic Serenade for Strings, and in Russian Anton Arensky’s Variations on the Theme of Tchaikovsky. Finland will be represented by its beloved Sibelius’s famed Love Suite.

The Central Ostrobothnian Orchestra and Kokkola Winter Accordion will also celebrate the present with a performance of Aulis Sallinen’s Duo Concertante. The performance will feature the new generation of accordion artists, Sonja Vertainen and Janne Valkeajoki and will be conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing, who has her roots in Ostrobothnia but has performed worldwide.

Tickets: 28 € / 22,50 € / 11 € (includes service charge)

Kilta Bar 9 p.m.
Torikatu 19

Keke Lammassaari & Julia Hansson – poems and songs on friendship
Antti Paalanen, accordion

YTN theatre and accordion improvisation

Pränttärit – poems on friendship

Free admission

Antti Paalanen
Musician and composer Antti Paalanen (b. 1977) has been prominent in the field of Finnish contemporary folk music for many years.

Paalanen is known for his violent, intense and hypnotic solo performances that push his body and his instrument to their limits. Paalanen’s music has been described as a “deep breathing” and “breathtaking” soundscape where Finnish creative madness combines with a primeval shamanist beat.

Antti Paalanen makes his music on the bisonoric (diatonic) accordion, a common instrument in Finnish folk music for the past century. Paalanen has employed an organic performance style, new techniques and new expressive sonorities to expand the potential of the instrument to embrace a variety of genres.

Paalanen comes from South Ostrobothnia, a region rich in the pelimanni (’traditional musician’) tradition of Finnish folk music. Between 1989 and 1996, Paalanen won the Finnish pelimanni championships on the diatonic accordion four times, and he placed second in the diatonic accordion world championships in Austria in 1999. He enrolled at the Department of Folk Music at the Sibelius Academy in 1997 and cmpleted his M.Mus. degree in 2006. In 2015, he completed a D.Mus. degree at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki in 2015.

Paalanen has released four solo albums: Äärelä (2007), Breathbox (2010), Meluta (2014) and the newest album Rujo (2019) which it is getting fantastic reviews at the moment. Its release date in continental Europe was July 2019. Meluta was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize 2016 and for the national Teosto Prize in 2015. Breathbox was a nominee for the national Etno-Emma prize in Finland in 2011, and in the same year Paalanen appeared at the WOMEX world music event in Copenhagen. Following his success at WOMEX, he has performed widely in Europe, Japan and Canada. Paalanen is active as a musician and a composer in a number of contexts in Finland. He appears on 15 albums by various bands to date, contributing compositions and arrangements. He has written music for the stage and been employed as a stage musician at the Finnish National Theatre and other major Finnish theatres.

Keke Lammassaari & Julia Hansson
Singer-poet Keke Lammassaari and accordion-player Julia Hansson have collaborated in music and theater for more than 7 years. In Love and Poetry Club, they present a performance that celebrates friendship in melodies, songs and poems.

Julia Hansson graduated in 2012 with a degree in classical accordion from the Central Ostrobothnia Conservatory. She has since studied music and education at Jyväskylä University and music at Jyväskylä vocational school, from where she graduated in 2017. Hansson’s career encompasses many different musical avenues, from classical and jazz to rock.  After studying at the Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland, she continued her studies at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

Poet, singer and musician Keke Lammassaari’s musical accomplishments include an Emma nomination as well as championship award in street music. His debut song “Meidän Metsä Ja Maja Kasvaa Tiiliseinää” is regularly played on, among others, Radio Pooki, and his song “Metsälampi” is performed together with Ostrobothnian Folk Orchestra. He studied music education at Centria University. For his love poems, Lammassaari was awarded first prize in 2012 and received the Keskipohjanmaalainen culttuuriteko award in 2016. He is the Kokkolan Rakkaus Ja Runo Festivalin founder and artistic director.

V:llä jatkettu – teaterimprovisationsgrupp
Yksipihlajan Työväen Näyttämön has a 100-year history in both screenwriting and acting. The group now aims to impress with the addition of Julia Hansson, promising laughter on a lazy evening.