Music Will Nightwish, Blind Channel and other Finnish bands get to perform their agreed gigs? Russia’s actions in the world of music are also closely monitored

The crisis in Ukraine and Russia’s possible hostilities against it cannot but affect the cultural life of the countries, such as concert tours, whether they go to Ukraine and Russia or from there to the rest of the world.

For example, the band Nightwish will have concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, as well as Kiev, Ukraine, and Minsk, Belarus, in their late-autumn tour calendar.

Manager Ewo Pohjolan according to which cancellations or changes have not yet been made.

“It needs to be discussed with a German agency, and that has not yet been done. However, there are still a lot of gigs around the world in between. ”

This year’s tour of Nightwish starts on April 22 in Tampere and continues through Canada and the United States to Europe in the summer, then to South America.

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are scheduled to perform in November 2022.

“We have a big fan base there. But it would certainly be difficult to move from Russia to Ukraine or vice versa, ”Pohjola thinks.

Amorphis band manager Jouni Markkanenkaan does not see the need to react to the situation at this stage.

The band will have concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow in February next year.

“When the gigs are only about a year from now, we will see how the situation develops and what the instructions of the Finnish state leadership will be,” he says.

Also in others Finnish artists are scheduled to give concerts in Russia and Ukraine: The Rasmus tour calendar will have five concerts in Ukraine and two in Russia in November.

Blind Channel, on the other hand, is scheduled to perform at the Atlas Festival in Kiev in early July, which will also feature Finnish artists Apocalyptica and Alma.

Manager of The Rasmus and Blind Channel Antti Eriksson says the situation is still open for possible changes.

“We monitor the situation and discuss the matter with agents and promoters,” Eriksson says.

Unclear is also how the situation in Ukraine affects the performances of Russian artists in Finland. The Mikkeli Music Festival, which will take place at the beginning of July, will be largely conducted by a conductor Valery Gergiev and around the concerts of the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, which he conducted. Gergiev is known Vladimir Putin as a friend, and has also performed as a cellist in Mikkeli Sergei Rolduginwhose name came out especially In connection with the Panama Papers data leak in connection with obscure money transfers. He, too, is a friend of Putin.

The Mariinsky Theater is sponsored by Sberbank and VTB, both of which the United States has announced sanctions, if Russia attacks Ukraine. It is unclear whether the Mariinsky Theater, sponsored by banks on the sanctions list, could perform abroad.

Mikkeli the program for the upcoming summer music festival is due to be announced in late February.

“We are monitoring the situation with a close eye and an ear, but for the time being we are preparing for the music festival quite normally,” says the festival director. Teemu Laasanen.

“We really can’t take a stand on the political situation, we’re trying to focus on the music and hopefully the situation won’t get worse. But if there are political changes, then of course we will re-evaluate the situation. I do not know whether bank sanctions would affect sponsorship patterns other than Mariinsky, as there is no connection between them and the Mikkeli Music Festival. But Mariinsky is an organization partly funded by the Russian state, and if it is subject to sanctions, it will of course affect us as well. ”

Valery Gergiev is scheduled to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic on a tour of the United States, which will include three concerts next weekend at Carnegie Hall in New York and two concerts next week in Naples, Florida. According to the New York Times Demonstrations against Gergiev’s visit are expected in front of the New York concert venue. Such have been seen in Gergiev’s previous concerts in New York in connection with.