Male Choir Valkia - Mieskuoro Valkia

News

November 2023 - Valkia and Estonian Chamber Choir Sireen have concerts in Helsinki and Tallinn.

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June 2023 - Valkia was awarded two gold stamps at the Tampere Vocal Musical Festival

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May 2023 - Valkia had a spring concert in Töölö church, Helsinki

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August 2022 - Elisa Huovinen began as the artistic director of Valkia.
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July 2022 - Valkia performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, England.
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November 2021 - Valkia performed in the International Leevi Madetoja male voice choir competition in Helsinki Music Center.

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October 2019 - Valkia performs it's first ever full-length concert in Tenalji von Fersen, Suomenlinna.

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September 2019 - Valkia got fifth place in the grand prix of International Baltic Sea Choir Competition in Jurmala, Latvia. Saara Aittakumpu was awarded a special prize for the best conductor of the competition.

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January 2019 - Valkia and Kamarikuoro Näsi perform together in two concerts, in Hämeenlinna and Helsinki.

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April 2018 - Valkia was awarded third prize in the Fleischmann International Trophy Competition in Cork, Ireland.

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February 2018 - Valkia premiered Dans les eaux polaires by Jean-Christophe Rosaz in Paris with female choir Le Miroir.

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November 2017 - Valkia has been invited to participate in the Fleischmann International Trophy

Competition held in Cork, Ireland in April 2018.

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September 2017 - Male Choir Valkia performs in Paris in February 2018 together with local female voice choir Le Miroir. Both choirs sing their own repertoire and also mixed voice works together.

For the tour in Paris, Valkia has invited their first visiting conductor, French Chloé Dufresne, who rehearses and conducts the choir until the tour.

Dufresne is excited to get to know Finnish male choir culture and to take Finnish male choir music to France.

Valkia, conducted by Dufresne, can also be heard in Finland. On January 26th, 2018, Valkia performs in Töölö church together with female voice choir Kaari-ensemble.

After Paris, Valkia continues its journey with artistic director Saara Aittakumpu.

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June 2017 - Valkia was awarded a diploma with one gold stamp and received a special male choir prize at the Tampere Vocal Music Festival.

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April 2017 - Valkia won the second prize in Contemporary Music Category of the 15th International Choir Festival "Tallinn 2017".

The Choir

Valkia is a Finnish male voice chamber choir founded in April 2016 by its members. The singers of the choir have backgrounds in the leading Finnish male and mixed choirs. While the best Finnish male choirs tend to be large ensembles of more than 50 singers, the leading thought of Valkia is to enable quality male choir singing in chamber choir size. As many of the members are long-time singer fellows, another important reason for founding the choir was friendship, which can be heard as unity and a sense of warmth in the choir’s sound.

Because of the member-led founding process and singers’ vast experience, the members have large role in setting direction for the choir. Among other things, the choir recruits new singers through collective decisions, has a strong role in choosing its repertoire, and employs – in addition to a chief conductor – visiting conductors on project basis.

Valkia’s repertoire consists of the gems of 19th and 20th century a cappella music for male choirs, spiced up with contemporary favorites. In line with the name of the choir, Valkia, which means “fire” or “blaze” in Finnish, the artistic goal of Valkia is to focus on the music itself, let it blaze in a moment, and fire up both the singers and audience.

Conductors

Elisa Huovinen started as Valkia's chief conductor in August 2022. She graduated from Sibelius Academy conducting department in 2016 and from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences music pedagogy department in 2017. During the years, she studied with Matti Hyökki, Nils Schweckendiek, Tõnu Kaljuste and Jani Sivén. She has also educated herself in international masterclasses with renowned conductors and choirs (Paul Hillier & Ars Nova Copenhagen, Frieder Bernius & Stuttgart Kammerchor). Huovinen is the winner of the first Finnish Choral Conductors’ Competition (Tampere, 2018) and the winner of Gheorge Dima International Music Competition for choir conductors (Cluj-Napoca, 2018). In 2021, she won the second prize and Europa Cantat special prize in Fosco Corti International Competition for choral conductors (Turin, 2021). Nowadays, Huovinen is artistic director to Male Choir Valkia, Somnium Ensemble, Akademiska Sångföreningen and the Finnish Youth Choir. She has also worked with professsional choirs both in Finland (Helsinki Chamber Choir, Key Ensemble, Tampere Cappella) and abroad (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National Male Choir, Transilvania Philharmonic Choir). Since 2017, Huovinen teaches choral conducting in Sibelius Academy. In addition, Huovinen is a very active singer and she has worked in many professional ensembles (I Dodici renaissance ensemble, Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir, Sibelius Academy Vocal Ensemble, Helsinki Chamber Choir). Since 2018, Huovinen is the chair of the board of the Finnish Choral Conductors’ Association that actively works to improve the position of choral conductors and the interaction between conductors and choirs.

Saara Aittakumpu acted as Valkia’s first chief conductor from June 2016 to July 2022. She has been the conductor and artistic director of the Polytech Choir since 2013. She also conducts Chamber Choir Kampin Laulu. Aittakumpu holds a Master’s degree in music with a major in Choral Conducting, awarded by the Sibelius Academy (now part of the University of the Arts, Helsinki, Finland). Aittakumpu has broad experience in teaching choral conducting at several institutions. She has worked as the choir master in productions by many prominent orchestras both domestically and outside of Finland. In her choirs, she emphasizes the commissioning of new music, and has premiered dozens of new works. Saara Aittakumpu was awarded with the conductor prize at the 5th International Anton Bruckner Choir Competition and Festival in Linz, Austria, and at the International Baltic Sea Choral Competition in Riga, Latvia. In 2018, the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association awarded her the prize of Choral Conductor of the Year.

For autumn 2017 Valkia invited visiting conductor Chloé Dufresne to rehearse and conduct the choir until a performance in Paris in February 2018. French-born conductor Dufresne began her studies in orchestra conducting at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where she was unanimously awarded the Advanced Diploma in 2015. Currently she is pursuing a degree in Orchestra Conducting at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, in the class of Atso Almila and Hannu Lintu. Ms. Dufresne has led and worked with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki City Orchestra, Pori Symfonietta, Joensuu City Orchestra (Finland); Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, Burgas State Opera (Bulgaria); Orchestre de Massy (France). She has completed a bachelor of musicology from the University of Paris-Sorbonne and participated in masterclasses with several renowned conductors.

For autumn 2018 Valkia invited visiting conductor Esko Kallio for rehearsing a concert production that was performed and conducted by Kallio in Hämeenlinna and Helsinki in January 2019.