Held every other year, the Helsinki International Big Band Composing Contest will be organized again this year by the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and The Finnish Big Band Association (SBBY).

In this concert, UMO will play the program of the final concert held on the previous day, 5.10.

This time, all European or Europe-based composers without age limit were able to participate in the competition with one previously unrecorded and unpublished 4–7 minute piece, composed for a standard big band orchestration. 76 composers from 24 countries participated in the competition. The competition was entered with a pseudonym, and the names of the maximum 10 composers who reach the finals will be determined after two anonymous pre-qualification rounds in the end of August. The finalists are now announced, see the list here! 

Conductor: Antti Rissanen.

More information and the rules here.

The head photo: Heikki Kynsijärvi

Antti Rissanen’s photo: Jukka Rapo