Turku Concert Hall

The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (City Orchestra) is the oldest orchestra in Finland and one of the oldest in the world: its origins are in the famous Musical Society of Turku that was founded in 1790. The orchestra was brought under municipal ownership in 1927. Today, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra with its 74 musicians is the fourth biggest orchestra in Finland.

The Chief Conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra is Petri Sakari who started his work in January 2007. The previous regular conductors of the orchestra have been Tauno Hannikainen, Toivo Haapanen, Ole Edgren, Jorma Panula, Paavo Rautio, Pertti Pekkanen, Igor Bezrodnyi, Jacques Mercier, Hannu Lintu and Tibor Bogányi.

Since autumn 2001, Juha Kangas has acted as Principal Guest Conductor of the orchestra. Paavo Berglund was appointed Conductor Laureate of the orchestra in 2002.

The Composers-in-Residence of the orchestra are Mikko Heiniö from Turku and "court composer" Anders Hillborg from Stockholm.

Most of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra concerts are held in the Turku Concert Hall, completed in 1952 and designed by Risto Luukkonen.