Concert at Temppeliaukio church on Friday 15.12. is sold out! Tickets are still available to the concert at Espoo Cathedral on Wednesday 13.12. and at Vihti Church on Thursday 14.12. 

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra plays Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s jazz arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, The Nutcracker. Beloved actress Anna Airola brings the story to life and reads the fairy tale written by E.T.A. Hoffmann about the Christmas night adventure of the Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Conductor Ed Partyka. Note! The fairy tale will be read in Finnish.

Glittering winter forests, an enchanted marzipan castle, toys that miraculously come alive… The Nutcracker Tale is full of magic and exciting twists! The plot of The Nutcracker, one of Tchaikovsky’s most famous and acclaimed ballets, is based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s Christmas story. The ballet was premiered in December 1892 at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and in 1960 Ellington and Strayhorn arranged and recorded their own interpretation of the beloved piece. The jazz adaptation has in recent years become a UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra’s Christmas tradition, which is now spiced up with a fairy tale – for the first time in Finland!

Let yourself be carried away by the fairy tale – and jazz!

Anna Airola (b. 1994) is a popular and award-winning actress hailing from Kokkola. Airola, who graduated from the Theatre Academy in 2022, has been chosen as the Best TV Actress of the Year and awarded with the Kultainen Venla prize for her role as Oona in Yle’s Aikuiset series. Airola, who grew up in a musical family, sings in the Ykspihlajan kino-orkesteri and has played tenor horn as well.

The concert is suitable for the whole family, but especially with the smallest concertgoers, we recommend preparing for loud volumes with earmuffs or plugs.

Doors open at 6:30. Duration c. 70 min, no intermission.

Photo of Anna Airola: Ilkka Saastamoinen