Mikkeli Music Festival has appointed Master of Arts Mirva Helske as Festival Director. Helske will start her employment 1 January 2024.
Helske has strong experience in organising music events in various roles. Helske has previously worked as the producer of the Mänttä Music Festival, the event coordinator of the Mikkeli Music College, and the main producer of South-Savo Music Theater and Opera Association's Oskar Merikanto's opera The Death of Elina, which premiered in March 2023. Helske is also an accompanist and piano pedagogue at Mikkeli's music college and performs as a pianist herself, especially with vocal music. Mirva Helske has served on the board of the Mikkeli Music Festival support association since 2020. Helske has a master's degree from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in three fields: vocal accompaniment, solo piano and instrument pedagogy.
"Mirva Helske is a cultural all-rounder. She has a strong track record of organising various music events in many roles. Mirva's very strong stakeholder network of local, regional and national cultural actors, as well as the confidence-building approach to doing things, can now fully support the future of the Mikkeli Music Festival," describes the chairman of the board, Markus Tykkyläinen.
"I was surprised at first when the Chairman of the Board approached me with a proposal for the position of Festival Director, as I am a pianist by background. However, after thinking about it for a while, I also saw the possibilities that I have as a local music generalist. After moving to Mikkeli in 2017, I have been involved in many kinds of music projects here and got to know the cultural patterns of the city both through the music school and my own concerts. I have followed the activities of the Mikkeli Music Festival from the board since 2020. For a small town, the work of every culture creator is really important. A large, international festival brings its own significant boost to the city's music and tourism life in the summer. Its success must be nurtured by all means! Piloting the Mikkeli Music Festival forward together with our Artistic Director, Erkki Lasonpalo, is a responsible task that I treat with great respect," says Festival Director Mirva Helske.
Mirva Helske succeeds M.Sc. Mikko Leppänen, whose temporary position as Festival Director ends at the end of 2023. "Since March, Mikko Leppänen put together a very successful summer 2023 festival from very unfinished ingredients. We thank Mikko for his contribution in moving the Music Festival tradition forward," says Markus Tykkyläinen, Chairman of the Board.
In the summer of 2022, the Mikkeli Music Festival started a collaboration with the London-based The Philharmonia orchestra and its conductor, Santtu Matias Rouvali. The cooperation with The Philharmonia will continue until the festival week of 2026 and will form the framework of the Mikkeli Music Festival week for the next few years. The summer 2024 programme was published in its entirety in December 2023, and all tickets for the summer 2024 concerts are now on sale. The programme will be supplemented with smaller concerts held outside the concert halls.
Additional information:
Markus Tykkyläinen, Chairman of the Board, puheenjohtaja@mikkelinmusiikkijuhlat.fi, tel +358 50 596 5482
Mirva Helske, Festival Director, festival@mikkelinmusiikkijuhlat.fi, tel + 358 44 033 8448
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