The Pori Boy's Choir

There is a long tradition of boy choir activity in Pori. Already back in the 1500's boys from the Pori area participating in an academic choir sang polyphonic songs from Piae Cantiones. The male choir, Pori Male Singers, founded a choir for boys in the year 1969. Since its inception the choir has been active and has achieved an important place in the cultural life of Pori through its concerts. Vuokko Järvenpää has conducted the choir since 1982. Sixty boys and young men, ranging in ages from 8 – 25 years of age, from the greater Pori area sing in the Pori Boy's Choir. The choir is independent, but cooperates with the Church, as well as with the music classes in Pori. Vuokko Järvenpää is working as the music class teacher at the Pori Cygnaeus Music Classes. She is conducting The Music Class Choir Synkooppi, too.

The Mission of our choir

The mission of the Pori Boy's Choir is to give boys an opportunity to develop their performing skills through concerts and touring experiences, to provide a good music education and training program for boys who love to sing and to develop in each boy a lifelong love of music.

The choir has dozens of friendship choirs around the world. For example, choirs from Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Germany, France, England, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Georgia, Romania, Slovakia, Monaco and Holland have visited Pori. In conjunction with these choir visits our boy choir members have performed music from all over the world. For their own part, the Pori Boy's Choir's members have made almost 20 concert tours to various parts of Europe, to Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Monaco, Sweden, Norway and Estonia.

The Pori Boys' Choir is a member of SULASOL Nuorten Kuoroliitto, the national association of Finnish Youth choirs. Vuokko Järvenpää has been in the administration and committee of this Association since the year 1984. She has been planning and organizing with the other Finnish choir conductors many kind of festivals for Youth and Boys Choirs, for instance The International Choral Sympaatti Choir Festival.

Cooperation with other choirs

Cooperation with other choirs has given new direction to the activities of the choir. The Pori Boy's Choir has participated in many of the choir camps and workshops for boy choirs organized by the Youth Choir Association taking place all over Finland. What has been sung together in Pori with visiting choirs retains an important place in the programme of the choir. In 1997 Pori Boy's Choir and Vuokko Järvenpää organized and hosted the fifth annual national Boys' Choir Days. Individual boy choirs, not to mention a massive compiled choir of boys, performed liturgical music of the great masters in Central Pori Church with its cathedral-like acoustics.

To give a few examples, the choir has performed Messe Brève by Mozart and Dèlibes, Gloria in D by Vivaldi and Christmas cantatas by Buxtehude and Hammerschmidt both with soloists as well as with instrumental groups. Since 1974 the Pori Boy's Choir, together with soloists and various instrumental groups, has wished its listeners a peaceful Christmas with joyous Christmas songs from all over Europe. The choir's accompanist is organist Juhani Romppanen, the artistical director of The Pori International Organ Festival. In December 2007 the Pori Boy's Choir, together with the Tampere Boy's Choir Pirkanpojat, performed J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas I-III, with soloists and the Pori Sinfonietta orchestra. In April 2009 the Pori Boy's Choir performed with the Tampere Boy's Choir Pirkanpojat and Turku CCI Boy's Choir the Mozart's Requiem in Tampere Pori and Turku Cathedrals.