Sinfonietta Fortis

Sinfonietta Fortis

Sinfonietta Fortis yhdistää nuoruuden ja kokemuksen. Kesän 2013 Espoon Urkuyö ja aaria -festivaalin avajaiskonsertissa E-ensemble nimellä menestyksekkäästi debytoineen orkesterin soittajistossa kohtaavat kokeneet eturivin ammattiorkestereiden muusikot, free lancer –muusikot sekä lahjakkaat nuoret musiikin ammattilaiset ja ammattiopiskelijat.

Omien konserttien lisäksi Sinfonietta Fortis tekee yhteistyötä kuorojen kanssa sekä toimii oopperaorkesterina. Helmikuussa 2026 orkesteri kantaesitti tilaamansa Olli Kortekankaan requiemin Turun Tuomiokirkossa Katedraali Soi -festivaaleilla. Elokuussa 2022 Sinfonietta Fortis toimi oopperaorkesterina Helsingin oopperakesässä menestyksekkäästi esitetyn PH Nordgrenin Den svarte munken kamarioopperan esityksissä.

Sinfonietta Fortis on äänittänyt sopraano Helena Juntusen ja taiteellisen johtajansa Teemu Hämäläisen kanssa suomalaisia ja ruotsalaisia orkesterilauluja sisältävän albumin joka julkaistaan Toukokuussa 2026. Sinfonietta Fortis on vieraillut useilla kotimaisilla festivaaleilla.

Sinfonietta Fortisin taiteellisena johtajana toimii kapellimestari Teemu Hämäläinen.

Sinfonietta Fortis

Sinfonietta Fortis combines youth and experience. Having successfully debuted under the name E-ensemble at the opening concert of the Espoo Organ Night and Arias Festival in the summer of 2013, the orchestra’s lineup includes experienced musicians from leading professional orchestras, freelance musicians, and talented young music professionals and vocational students.

In addition to its own concerts, Sinfonietta Fortis collaborates with choirs and operates as an opera orchestra. In February 2026, the orchestra premiered its commissioned Olli Kortekangas Requiem at the Turku Cathedral during the Katedraali Soi festival. In August 2022, Sinfonietta Fortis operated as an opera orchestra in performances of PH Nordgren’s chamber opera Den svarte munken, which was successfully performed at the Helsinki Opera Summer Festival.

Sinfonietta Fortis has recorded an album of Finnish and Swedish orchestral songs with soprano Helena Juntunen and its artistic director Teemu Hämäläinen, which will be released in May 2026. Sinfonietta Fortis has visited several domestic festivals.

Sinfonietta Fortis is artistically directed by conductor Teemu Hämäläinen.

Sinfonietta Fortis

Sinfonietta Fortis kombinerar ungdom och erfarenhet. Efter att framgångsrikt ha debuterat under namnet E-ensemble vid öppningskonserten för Esbo Orgelnatt och Ariasfestival sommaren 2013, inkluderar orkesterns besättning erfarna musiker från ledande professionella orkestrar, frilansmusiker och begåvade unga musikproffs och yrkesstuderande.

Förutom sina egna konserter samarbetar Sinfonietta Fortis med körer och fungerar som en operaorkester. I februari 2026 uruppförde orkestern sitt beställda Olli Kortekangas Requiem i Åbo domkyrka under Katedraali Soi-festivalen. I augusti 2022 fungerade Sinfonietta Fortis som en operaorkester i framföranden av P.H. Nordgrens kammaropera Den svarte munken, som framgångsrikt framfördes vid Helsingfors Operasommarfestival.

Sinfonietta Fortis har spelat in ett album med finska och svenska orkesterlåtar med sopranen Helena Juntunen och dess konstnärliga ledare Teemu Hämäläinen, som släpps i maj 2026. Sinfonietta Fortis har besökt flera inhemska festivaler.

Sinfonietta Fortis är konstnärligt regisserad av dirigenten Teemu Hämäläinen.

Teemu Hämäläinen, conductor

The versatile musician Teemu Hämäläinen began his career as a violinist. Conducting studies with professor Jorma Panula and a mentoring relationship with conductor John Nelson subsequently led Hämäläinen to embark on a professional conducting career.

In addition to the core classical repertoire, Hämäläinen has conducted opera, musical plays, premieres of contemporary orchestral works and ’crossover’ collaborations, e.g. with the pop singer Ida Elina and the jazz virtuoso Juhani Aaltonen, with whom he recorded the album Carmina Sacra, combining Aaltonen’s jazz-inspired improvisations with a string orchestra led by Hämäläinen. He recently conducted the first performance of Olli Kortekangas’ Requiem at Turku Cathedral.

Alongside his work as a guest conductor with Finnish professional orchestras including the Tapiola Sinfonietta, Joensuu City Orchestra and St. Michel Strings, Teemu Hämäläinen is artistic director and chief conductor of the Finnish-based Sinfonietta Fortis. He has also appeared in China and the Czech Republic.

Arranging and writing orchestrations is an integral part of Teemu Hämäläinen’s artistic identity. His output as an orchestrator includes a wide variety of songs and song cycles ranging from Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge to contemporary pop-music. A significant number of the orchestrations featuring on the album Ballad were written by Teemu Hämäläinen.

Hämäläinen is especially well-known for his collaboration with singers. He has worked together with many internationally renowned Finnish vocalists including the sopranos Helena Juntunen, Johanna Rusanen-Kartano, Mari Palo and Tuuli Lindeberg, mezzo-soprano Melis Jaatinen, tenor Tuomas Katajala, baritone Tommi Hakala and basses Jaakko Ryhänen and Esa Ruuttunen.

Sinfonietta Fortis

Bringing together seasoned musicians from leading professional orchestras, talented young music professionals and high-level students, Sinfonietta Fortis combines youth and experience.

In addition to its own concerts and guest appearances at several Finnish festivals, the orchestra also collaborates with choirs and functions as an opera orchestra, for example in Pehr Henrik Nordgren’s chamber opera Den Svarte Munken (The Black Monk), which was successfully performed with Opera Fortis at the 2022 Helsinki Opera Summer Festival.

Sinfonietta Fortis recently commissioned Olli Kortekangas’ Requiem, giving the work’s first performance in February 2026 at the Katedraali Soi! festival in Turku Cathedral.

The artistic director of Sinfonietta Fortis is conductor Teemu Hämäläinen.

Helena Juntunen, soprano

Helena Juntunen has established an international career as one of Finland’s most prominent younger sopranos.
The role of Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2002 can be considered as Helena’s professional breakthrough. Roles such as Mimi (La Bohème), Jenny Hill (Weill Mahagonny), Salomé, Madama Butterfly, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Marietta (Korngold Die Tote Stadt), Tatyana (Eugen Onegin), Marie (Berg Wozzeck), and most recently Káťa Kabanová (Janáček) have taken her to opera houses around Europe.
Juntunen has performed in more than ten Finnish operatic world premieres. She is also proud of performing Sibelius around the world, most recently in Seoul, Rotterdam and London.

Juntunen’s concert highlights include Luonnotar by Sibelius in Sydney and London with Vladimir Ashkenazy, in Amsterdam with Leif Segerstam and Ottawa with John Storgårds, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Lucerne Festival under Vladimir Jurowski, Unsuk Chin’s SnagS&Snarls in Stavanger, Helsinki and London, the premiere of a new song-cycle by Haflidi Hallgrimsson in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Reykjavik, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with La Verdi under Xian Zhang and with Sir Colin Davis in London, Bonn, Paris and New York, Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Leif Segerstam and her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Donald Runnicles with Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem, as well as Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä.

Recently Juntunen has appeared as Madama Butterfly, Donna Elvira and Aida at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, as Marie/Marietta in Simon Stone’s critically-acclaimed production of Die tote Stadt in Basel, as Senta (Der fliegend Holländer) in Graz, at the Badisches Staatsoper as Marie in Wozzeck and in Strasbourg as Salomé (stage director Olivier Py) and Els in Franz Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber (production by Christof Loy).