Freeman: Under the Arching Heavens - A Requiem

A requiem in commemoration of the Finnish civil war.

The Helsinki Chamber Choir (Helsingin kamarikuoro) was founded in 1962 as the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir and assumed its current name in 2005. Currently Finland's only professional chamber choir, its wide-ranging repertoire includes music from the Renaissance to the present day and it is particularly highly regarded for its work with new music. The choir appears frequently at festivals in Finland and abroad and collaborates with symphony orchestras, period instrument ensembles and contemporary music groups. Its concerts are regularly broadcast on national radio and television, and it has
also appeared in productions for the ARTE channel and the European Broadcasting Union. Recent touring has taken the Helsinki Chamber Choir to the United States, Belgium, Russia, Italy, the UK and around Scandinavia.

Nils Schweckendiek studied music at Clare College, Cambridge, and orchestral and choral conducting in Freiburg and Helsinki. Since making his highly successful debut at the Finnish National Opera with Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier in 2006, he has performed with orchestras, ensembles and choirs in many European countries, the United States and China, and appeared at numerous opera houses and festivals, including the Leipzig Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival. Nils Schweckendiek is committed to performing the music of our time and has conducted around a hundred first performances,
including music theatre, orchestral, choral and ensemble works. Since 2007 Nils Schweckendiek has been artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir. In 2014 he was appointed professor of choral conducting at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, and since 2017 he has been artistic director of the Helsinki Music Centre Chorus. He is founder and artistic director of the International Einojuhani Rautavaara Composition Competition.