LEAD Foundation

As Fiskars Summer Festival 2026 approaches, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Uusimaa Regional Fund and all the foundations, organisations and individuals who support our work. ❤️

Thanks to the generous support of William Thurings Stiftelse, Taike, Svenska Kulturfonden, Sparbanksstiftelsen Karis-Pojo, Louise & Göran Ehrnrooth Foundation, Sophie von Julins Stiftelse, Fiskars Group & Village and our many individual patrons, we can continue to develop our activities in Fiskars as an inspiring meeting place for artists, audiences and ideas.

Last week we had the pleasure to collaborate with and for Mahler's 3rd Symphony! We are incredibly proud of our young instrumentalists students who joined the orchestra for the rehearsals and both concerts ❤️

Dasha Auer
Oleksandr Ahafonov
Wonjay Seo
Rebekka Aaltola
Yaodong Zhang
Lena-Marie Stöger .stoger
Selma Sköld
Alexander Shirinyan

Thank you to everyone who participated in this collaboration and made it possible!

✨ Soloist spotlight ✨

One of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, Karen Cargill, is the amazing soloist in our collaborative project with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra for Mahler's 3rd Symphony. We are also happy to have Karen join us again in the Fiskars Summer Festival 2026, where she'll be the soloist for our Festival Finale-concert and the Open House-concert 🤩

Described as having a voice that “dazzles” with a “treacle-rich middle register” and a “full and rich top,” Karen Cargill has established herself as one of the leading singers of her generation, with upcoming engagements at the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Norwegian National Opera.

Equally celebrated on the concert stage, she regularly collaborates with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Robin Ticciati, Rafael Payare, and Edward Gardner. Highlights of her 25/26 season include Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle at the Canadian Opera Company, Adelaide in Arabella at the Metropolitan Opera, performances of Pelléas et Mélisande, Götterdämmerung, Mahler Symphonies 2 & 3, and La Damnation de Faust with leading orchestras across Europe and North America.

Recent seasons have included acclaimed performances at Glyndebourne, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and San Diego Symphony.

With recital partner Simon Lepper, Karen has performed at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall, and has recorded acclaimed albums for Linn Records. She is also Patron of the National Girls’ Choir of Scotland and sang at the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III in 2023.

The rehearsal period for Mahler's 3rd Symphony with Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Karen Cargill and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra is in motion. We are happy to see our young instrumental students learn and benefit from this experience.

✨ We want to remind you that tickets to all concerts of Fiskars Summer Festival 2026 are on sale in Tiketti! ✨

Our Open House concert this year is the Young conductors’ concert on Friday, July 31st, where the conducting students of the annual masterclass will lead the acclaimed Fiskars Festival Orchestra in a programme of Mozart, Sibelius, Britten and Beethoven. The two soloists of the concert are rising Finnish star violinist Otto Antikainen, and one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, Karen Cargill.

See the programme for all concerts and reserve your seat here: www.leadfoundationfinland.com/fiskars

✨ Soloist Spotlight ✨

We are proud to welcome Otto Antikainen, one of Finland’s most exciting rising violinists, to the Fiskars Summer Festival 2026!

Otto Antikainen is a Finnish violinist known both as an orchestral soloist and chamber musician. He has appeared as a soloist with several Finnish orchestras and will perform next season with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

As a chamber musician, Antikainen has performed at festivals including Kuhmo Chamber Music and has received recognition in several international violin competitions. In the 2025 Sibelius Violin Competition, he was the only Finnish violinist to reach the finals among the top six competitors.

He performs on a 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin kindly loaned by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Photo credit: Tuomas Tenkanen

Tickets for the Fiskars Summer Festival 2026 concerts are on sale on Tiketti! Click the link to reserve your seat: https://www.tiketti.fi/fiskars-summer-festival-2026-fiskars-fiskars-lippuja/114614

A friendly reminder to all conductors, that we are accepting applications for our brand new LEAD! Lab in London! ✨

Join us for two days of conversation and music centred on Brahms and the art of leadership. The LEAD! Foundation and Fidelio Cafe bring together young conductors, industry professionals and audiences for talks, discussions and live musical insights.

Register now: www.leadfoundationfinland.com/lead-labs

Jukka-Pekka Saraste photo credit: Felix Broede

✨ We are excited to announce that Vasily Petrenko will join us for the Fiskars Summer Festival 2026 as one of our conducting mentors ✨

Vasily Petrenko is Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a role he began in 2021, and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra after a celebrated fifteen-year tenure as Chief Conductor (2006–2021). He is Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and has served as Chief Conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra (2015–2024), Oslo Philharmonic (2013–2020), and Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (2009–2013). He stood down as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’ in 2022 having been their Principal Guest Conductor from 2016 and Artistic Director from 2020.

Petrenko has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras and is equally at home in opera, with over thirty operas in his repertoire. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Grafenegg Festival, and the BBC Proms.

Highlights of the 2025/26 season include tours with the Royal Philharmonic in Spain and the United States. He makes his debut with the Warsaw Philharmonic, and returns to conduct the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Dresden Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, among others.
His discography is widely acclaimed, including Shostakovich, Rachmaninov, and Elgar cycles with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and releases of Scriabin, Strauss, Prokofiev, and Myaskovsky with the Oslo Philharmonic.

Petrenko was Gramophone Artist of the Year (2017), Classical BRIT Male Artist of the Year (2010), and holds honorary degrees from Liverpool’s three universities. In 2024, he co-founded a young conductors’ academy in Armenia.

Photo: Mark McNulty

In celebration of Vappu here in Finland, we are happy to announce that tickets to all Fiskars Summer Festival 2026 concerts are now on sale! 🥳

Fiskars Summer Festival once again offers a wonderful selection of chamber music and orchestral concerts with the musicians of the Fiskars Festival Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, visiting conducting mentors, our young conducting students and the distinguished soloists Karen Cargill and Otto Antikainen.

Our Open House concert this year is the Young conductors’ concert on Friday, July 31st, where the conducting students of the annual masterclass will lead the acclaimed Fiskars Festival Orchestra in a programme of Mozart, Sibelius, Britten and Beethoven. The two soloists of the concert are rising Finnish star violinist Otto Antikainen, and one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, Karen Cargill.

Check out the full programme and buy your tickets here: https://www.tiketti.fi/fiskars-summer-festival-2026-fiskars-fiskars-lippuja/114614

✨ New blog post! ✨

What makes a concert programme truly engaging and well-balanced?

Our Head of Programming and Mentorship, Paul Hughes, shares his insights and practical tips in the latest LEAD! Insights article. This is valuable information to any musician curating their own programmes!

Read the article in our brand new blog LEAD! Insights: www.leadfoundationfinland.com/lead-insights