Requiem
Vaasa City Orchestra
cond. Anna-Maria Helsing
sol. Wilhelmina Tómasdóttir, soprano & Tomi Punkeri, barytone
Chamber Choir Canticum Maris
At the Vaasa City Orchestra’s Easter concert on Good Friday, the audience will hear Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem as the evening’s main work—a piece that, within its genre, is strikingly bright and comforting in its view of eternal rest after death. In the concert, conducted by Chief Conductor Anna-Maria Helsing, the audience can enjoy distinguished vocal performances from both the orchestra’s long-standing collaborator, the chamber choir Canticum Maris, and from two fresh-sounding soloists: baritone Tomi Punkeri and the Finnish-Icelandic soprano Wilhelmina Tómasdóttir, who, despite her young age, has already attracted attention on concert and opera stages as well as in vocal competitions. The orchestral interludes in Arvo Pärt’s Cantus, written in memory of Benjamin Britten, and the “Good Friday Music” from Richard Wagner’s Parsifal, lead listeners into the mood of the requiem.
Program
Arvo Pärt
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Richard Wagner
Karfreitagszauber aus Parsifal
Gabriel Fauré
Requiem, op. 48
Artists
Anna-Maria Helsing, conductor
Anna-Maria Helsing has gained an outstanding reputation with leading Scandinavian orchestras and opera houses. 2023 she was appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, where she held the position as its Principal Guest Conductor since 2020. Since January 2025 she is also the Chief Conductor of Vaasa City Orchestra. From 2010 to 2013 Anna-Maria Helsing was Chief Conductor of the Oulu Symphony – the first-ever female conductor at the head of a Finnish symphony orchestra. She currently holds the position as Artistic Director of the high-profile chamber music festival Rusk, in Jakobstad, Finland.
Within a short time the Finnish conductor has conducted all the major Finnish and Swedish orchestras including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony and Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra. She also conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London), Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Trondheim Symphony, Odense Symphony, Jena Philharmonic, Estonian National Symphony and Musikkollegium Winterthur (Switzerland). Anna-Maria Helsing gave her debut at the Finnish National Opera with Adriana Mater by Kaija Saariaho in 2008. She has led a number of world premieres, most recently Momo at the Royal Danish Opera and Magnus-Maria by Karólína Eiríksdóttir on tour in Scandinavia. She has also performed established operas by Mozart, Cimarosa, Puccini, Mascagni, Madetoja and Bernstein at the Tampere Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival to name but a few.
Anna-Maria Helsing feels a special affinity with the sound and style of modernism and contemporary music. Upcoming highlights for this autumn: Helsing’s return to the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm for a new Sami Opera by Britta Byström and revisit in Brno, Czech Republic, with the BBC Concert Orchestra for the opening concert of the Moravian Autumn Festival. During this season Helsing makes her debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canada, South Denmark Philharmonic and Wiesbaden State Orchestra in Germany. She revisits the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm, Odense and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras and the City Orchestras of Kuopio and Joensuu.
Anna-Maria Helsing began her career as a violinist (with diplomas from the Conservatory of Jakobstad and the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz), leading chamber orchestras before serving as Artistic Director of the Pietarsaari Sinfonietta and conductor of the Wegelius Chamber Orchestra. She has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Vladimir Jurowski and John Carewe. Just after finishing her studies in the class of Leif Segerstam at the Sibelius Academy, the Finnish conductor was chosen to take part in the International Conductor’s Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation under the guidance of among others Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. In 2011 Anna-Maria Helsing became the first conductor to be awarded the Louis Spohr Medal in Seesen (Germany). In 1999 she won the First Prize in the International Competition for 20th Century Music for Young Artists in Warsaw.
Tomi Punkeri, baritone
Baritone Tomi Punkeri graduated as a church musician from the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in 2018 and received his Master of Music from the Royal Danish Opera Academy in Copenhagen in 2020, where he studied with Jens Søndergaard. After his studies, Punkeri joined the Royal Danish Opera’s two-year Young Artist Programme for the seasons 2020–2022.
Punkeri’s operatic roles include Papageno (The Magic Flute), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Schaunard (La Bohème), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), and Masetto (Don Giovanni). In August 2024 he appeared at the Helsinki Festival and at the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, performing the role of Shaklovity in Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina.
Punkeri has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO), Oulu Symphony, Kymi Sinfonietta, the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta.
His oratorio and lied repertoire includes J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat and Mass in B minor, the Requiems by Mozart and Fauré, Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, as well as song cycles such as Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, and Schumann’s Dichterliebe.
Punkeri has received recognition in several singing competitions both nationally and internationally. In 2023 he was awarded a special prize in the final of the Klaudia Taev Competition. Other recent international competitions include the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, the Wigmore Hall / Independent Opera International Song Competition and the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM), where he reached the semi-finals.
In Finland he received a special prize in the final of the Lappeenranta Singing Competition in 2016 and won second prize at the Helsinki Lied Competition in 2015. In 2022 he was nominated by CPHCulture as Opera Singer of the Year in Denmark. Punkeri has also been featured on radio and television broadcasts by Yle, BBC, Sveriges Radio and DR.
Wilhelmína Tómasdóttir, soprano
The Turku-Icelandic soprano Wilhelmína Tómasdóttir is a versatile singer who feels at home on stage. She is inspired by the stories in music and behind it, and has therefore been described as a “singing actress.” Opera is particularly close to her heart, and in 2025 she will make her debut at the Ilmajoki Music Festival in the title role of Katariina in Pulkkis’s opera Isoviha.
During the 2025–2026 season she will appear, among other engagements, in the Finnish National Opera’s children’s operas The Barber of Seville (Rossini, Koivisto) and Tähtiainesta (Nykänen). Tómasdóttir also enjoys contemporary music and has premiered several roles: in addition to Katariina, she created the roles of Maria (Viimeinen lautta, Räsänen, 2023), Lilaloo (Kuinka-Kum-Maa on kaikkialla, Ahola, 2021), and Grandmother (Logicomix, Autio, 2017).
Alongside opera, Tómasdóttir performs lied repertoire and major choral works. In addition to the standard oratorio repertoire, she has appeared as a soloist in works such as Pekka Kostiaisen Triduum Paschale (Matjeveff, 2024) and Camille Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël (Sorensen, 2023).
In the lied repertoire she is fascinated by the relationship between poetry and music and how they nourish and deepen one another, creating something new and remarkable. Her strong stage presence and ability to interpret texts have brought her success in competitions: in 2018 she won the Helsinki Lied Competition together with pianist Siiri Ylijoki. She has also reached the semi-finals of the Havets Röst singing competition in 2023 and the Lappeenranta Singing Competition in 2025.
Tómasdóttir began her musical studies as a flautist, and during upper secondary school she also discovered classical singing. She is currently completing her vocal studies at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, studying with Annika Ollinkari. In her free time she enjoys reading, solving crosswords, and water aerobics.
Chamber Choir Canticum Maris
The chamber choir Canticum Maris operates within the Finnish parish in Vaasa and was founded in 2020. The choir is conducted by Dir. Mus. Tarja Viitanen.
Despite its young age, Canticum Maris has already proven to be a strong and capable ensemble. The choir has taken part in several radio and television broadcasts by Yle. An important part of Canticum Maris’s activities is the performance of large-scale sacred works; in recent years the choir has presented projects such as W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, J. Haydn’s oratorio Die Jahreszeiten, and G. F. Handel’s oratorio Messiah.
Performing large choral works and demanding a cappella repertoire helps a choir develop quickly into a skilled ensemble. The choir’s future plans include, for example, performing the oratorio Messiah at the Vaasa Awakening Festival in summer 2024, presenting J. Haydn’s oratorio The Creation together with the Vaasa City Orchestra, and participating in choral festivals in Finland and abroad.