RIOT Symphony tours to Helsinki Festival: 20 Aug 2026
Belfast Ensemble’s critically acclaimed RIOT Symphony tours to Helsinki Festival this August, in a European premiere conducted by Andrew Gourlay, featuring Soprano Aurora Marthens and Tenor Ric Furman.
With support from Culture Ireland & Belfast City Council , and in collaboration with the Finnish National Opera & Ballet Orchestra, the ensemble presents this daring and evocative orchestral installation - blending symphonic and operatic colours with a newly invigorated film design by the award-winning Irish filmmaker Nicky Larkin.
ROT Symphony unleashes a spirit of energy, revolution and political activism through a multi-media orchestral experience. This critically acclaimed work, first performed by Belfast Ensemble & Ulster Orchestra, fuses Conor Mitchell’s symphonic and operatic style with songs from Pussy Riot, and the writings of Sophie Scholl from the White Rose Movement.
In a world dominated by dictators and oligarchs, RIOT Symphony explores acts of individual and collective dissent that provoke civic conversations, whilst demonstrating that the fundamental act of art making is rebellious and political at its core.
This 50 minute orchestral audio visual experience blends the political writings of boundary pushing revolutionaries with symphonic colour and stunning visuals, creating an explosive, high-concept protest work that refuses to be defined.
In a programme exhibiting musical responses to violence and conflict, the scale and force of RIOT Symphony will be completed by the intensity and fervour of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, performed by 23 exceptional string players from the Finnish National Opera & Ballet Orchestra.
This autumnal work, which Strauss wrote in response to poetry by Gotethe of the same title, is considered one of the composer’s most evocative works, and expresses Strauss’s mourning for German life, love, and culture during the closing days of the Second World War.
With over 130 wars currently fanning their flames across the globe, combined with widespread financial and technological insurrections against international democracies, RIOT Symphony reminds us that the actions of ordinary people can empower, and facilitate positive social change on a local, national and international level.
With lead partners from Belfast & Helsinki - northern Europe’s western & eastern hinterlands - this trans-European concert demonstrates the unique power of art & music to connect, enrage, and inspire on a continental scale.
RIOT Symphony
7pm - 20 August 2026
Helsinki Music Centre, Concert Hall
€15 – €73
