I’ve performed solo piano improvisation concerts at the Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki on an almost weekly basis since 2002.
On November 7th, 2024 I played there for the 666th time, can you believe it?
It is such a fantastic place!
The church has wonderful acoustics, it is an architectural beauty (talking about Wow-architecture) and the Steinway grand piano they have is the best piano I’ve had the honor to play on, ever.
And I’ve played on quite a few to be sure.
In March 2015 I spent two evenings in the church recording improvisations based on songs of the Finnish Book of Hymns. The CD was released on Midsummer Day, June 20th, 2015 and has sold several thousand copies by now.
Here is a short video from the recording session:
During the corona pandemic I played my concerts in an Empty Church, streaming them to a worldwide audience through Facebook.
One of the concerts (*Empty Church concert XI’, on May 27th, 2020) was recorded for CD publication.
Two weeks later, on June 2nd, I added some classic analogue synthesizers to the live performance.
Listen to ‘Gratitude’, the video being live in concert, the audio including the later added Mellotron and Fender Rhodes electric piano:
‘Here – Beyond The Infinite’ is available for download and/or as a CD on my Bandcamp-site.
Also the version without added synthesizers, the ‘Empty Church concert nro XI’ as it was played live in the church, can be listened to and downloaded there on Bandcamp.
My concerts usually take place on Wednesday mornings (by exception sometimes on Tuesday or Thursday, if the Wednesday is occupied for some reason) starting at 10.15am.
Please check the Gigs page for upcoming dates!
On selected Fridays at 2.30pm I also organize a series of chamber concerts called ‘Two Moons chamber concerts‘.
In these concerts I am improvising in a Duo setting with some of Finland’s most renowned instrumentalists and a couple of international visiting friends, as well.
Welcome to the magical Temppeliaukio Church!