After a long break from trav­el­ling abroad, the choir trav­elled to Por­tugal in Decem­ber 2023. The Ambas­sad­or of Fin­land Satu Suikkari-Kleven and the Embassy of Fin­land in Lis­bon had invited Dom­in­ante to per­form in Portugal.

In Lis­bon, a heart­warm­ing Christ­mas con­cert was organ­ized for loc­als in col­lab­or­a­tion with the embassy and the city of Belém, as well as a recep­tion for Fin­land­’s Inde­pend­ence Day in the his­tor­ic­al Nation­al Coach Museum, atten­ded by ambas­sad­ors from all around the world.

Addi­tion­ally, a con­cert was held in Lis­bon togeth­er with the Coro Regina Coeli de Lis­boa choir, fol­lowed by an even­ing of singing and loc­al del­ic­acies. At the end of the trip, a per­form­ance was giv­en at the Inde­pend­ence Day cel­eb­ra­tion of the Algarve Fin­land asso­ci­ation in Alvor.

In addi­tion to the suc­cess­ful con­certs, the choir mem­bers exper­i­enced mem­or­able moments of vis­it­ing the embassy’s rooftop ter­race, hav­ing walk­ing tours through the col­or­ful alleys of Lis­bon, and diving into the lively waves of Portimão.

In August 2019 Dom­in­ante par­ti­cip­ated in the Young Artists Bayreuth ‑fest­iv­al in Bav­aria, Germany.

The fest­iv­al was held in the city of Bayreuth, nowadays fam­ous for the Richard Wag­n­er Fest­iv­al, and its sur­round­ings. In Bayreuth, Dom­in­ante per­formed in con­certs at the Stadtkirche church and at an Octo­ber­­fest-themed even­ing event.

Dur­ing the tour the choir also per­formed in sev­er­al smal­ler towns around Bav­aria. One spe­cial loc­a­tion was the Spein­shart Mon­as­tery, in which the con­cert was held at an open court­yard in beau­ti­ful sun­shine. The oth­er nearby cit­ies’ con­certs took place in Fichtel­berg and in Neustadt bei Coburg. 

In addi­tion to con­certs, the choir got to vis­it some sights and learn about loc­al his­tory dur­ing the tour. A day trip to the pictor­esque town of Bam­berg offered a well-deserved break from the fest­iv­al pro­gramme, while a vis­it to Richard Wagner’s former res­id­ence “Wahn­fried” (the Richard Wag­n­er Museum) in Bayreuth intro­duced the choir to the com­poser’s life and work.

Dom­in­ante traveled to Ger­many and Switzer­land for a one-week con­cert tour. The choir per­formed in four dif­fer­ent cit­ies, accom­pan­ied by Finnish organ­ist Markku Hietaharju.

Dur­ing the tour, Dom­in­ante’s con­certs took place in Bern’s Hei­liggeistkirche, in Stut­tgart’s Stadtkirche S‑Bad Cannstatt, in Basel’s Basler Mün­ster and in Heidel­ber­g’s Hei­liggeistkirche. The con­certs attrac­ted a good amount of listen­ers and the recep­tion was very warm at every ven­ue. Even some Dom­in­ante alumni were spot­ted in the audience!

In addi­tion to the con­certs, Dom­in­ante met with a long-time friend in Bern, Switzer­land: Finnish ambas­sad­or Timo Rajakan­gas. In between con­certs the choir had a chance to dis­cov­er the loc­al sights: some tried out float­ing in the Rhine, and many vis­ited the Dreiländereck— a monu­ment in Basel, where the bor­ders of France, Ger­many and Switzer­land meet.

Dom­in­ante took part in the Taipei Inter­na­tion­al Chor­al Fest­iv­al held in Taiwan’s cap­it­al Taipei.

Dur­ing the 1‑week fest­iv­al Dom­in­ante per­formed in two even­ing con­certs in the Taipei Nation­al Con­cert Hall and in the Nation­al Taichung Theat­er. In addi­tion, the choir per­formed twice in Taipei. The choir’s rep­er­toire con­sisted of Finnish a cap­pella music, for example of chor­al works by Jean Sibeli­us, Eino­juh­ani Rautavaara and Toivo Kuula. 

At the end of the week, Dom­in­ante per­formed Mendelssohn’s Lobges­ang in the final con­cert of the fest­iv­al togeth­er with the fest­iv­al choir and the Taipei Phil­har­mon­ic Youth Orchestra.

In addi­tion to the con­certs, the choir had a chance to hear oth­er invited choirs in their con­certs and dis­covered loc­al food cul­ture and Taipei city sights with the help of our fest­iv­al guides. 

In 2017, Dom­in­ante was offered the excit­ing oppor­tun­ity to take part in the Leipzig Bach Fest­iv­al in col­lab­or­a­tion with Ger­man cham­ber choir Kam­mer­chor der Stadt Leipzig.

The artist­ic dir­ect­or of the pro­ject was Dutch con­duct­or Daniel Reuss, whose chal­len­ging task was to rehearse and join two sep­ar­ate choirs into one instru­ment dur­ing only two week-long rehears­al periods.

The pro­ject began in April, when the Ger­man choir spent one week in Hel­sinki as Dominante’s guests. In addi­tion to rehears­als, the choirs had a chance to see the Finnish Radio Sym­phony Orchestra’s rehears­al from up close and organ­ized an Arc­tic Barbe­que ‑themed soirée. 

In June, Dom­in­ante traveled to Leipzig as guests of the Bach Archive and Leipzig Cham­ber Choir. Dur­ing the day, the choirs rehearsed togeth­er with Daniel Reuss and per­formed at two out­door con­certs. The week cul­min­ated in a con­cert at the St. Thomas Church.

In addi­tion to con­certs and rehears­als, the choir vis­ited the Bach Museum and Leipzig City Hall and explored the city’s his­tory with a guided walk­ing tour.

In the Fall of 2016 Dom­in­ante went on a one-week con­cert tour in Hun­gary. Dur­ing the tour the choir per­formed in Bud­apest, Miskolc and Székesfehérvár.

The tour star­ted in Bud­apest, where the choir per­formed in the Church of Stig­mat­isa­tion of Saint Fran­cis (Szent Fer­enc sebei tem­plom). The next con­cert took place in Miskolc, ca. 190 km from Bud­apest, where the choir per­formed in the Wooden Church (Deszkatem­plom) as guests of organ­ist László Varga. In the tour’s final con­cert in Székes­fe­hér­vár Dom­in­ante per­formed along with the choir Vox Mirabilis.

While on the tour, the choir also held a flash­mob per­form­ance in a his­tor­ic­al mar­ket hall and vis­ited the Finnish Embassy in Bud­apest. The tour ended with a mem­or­able Danube river cruise in Budapest.

The 40^th anniversary year of Dom­in­ante in 2015 was also the anniversary of our nation­al com­poser Jean Sibeli­us. To cel­eb­rate, Dom­in­ante trav­elled to rep­res­ent Fin­land in Croa­tia and in Bos­nia-Herzegov­­ina, invited by the Finnish ambas­sad­or Timo Rajakangas.

Dur­ing the week-long trip, the choir per­formed in many impress­ive places: in Croa­tia, at the open­ing con­cert of the Musica Sac­ra fest­iv­al in Rov­inji, in the Croa­tian nation­al theatre in Rijeka and in the Mimara museum in Zagreb.

One of the high points of the trip was the con­cert at the final des­tin­a­tion in Sara­jevo. Dom­in­ante got to per­form in the his­tor­ic town hall, which had been restored only a year before. Voices echoed beau­ti­fully in its impress­ive acoustics.

On its week-long tour in Rus­sia and Esto­nia, Dom­in­ante sparked admir­a­tion towards Finnish a cap­pella chor­al music in St. Peters­burg, Perm, Hatsina and Tallinn. 

The per­form­ances in the Esto­ni­an church in St. Peters­burg and in Tallinn’s Kaarli Kirik were part of the Credo fest­iv­al of ortho­dox sac­red music. The con­cert in Hatsina, on the oth­er hand, was held at a loc­al Finnish church. The audi­ence was par­tic­u­larly moved by Sibeli­us’ Fin­land­ia hymn.

One of the curi­os­it­ies of the tour was the 30-hour train ride from Perm to St. Peters­burg. The Trans-Siber­i­an train was a new and mem­or­able exper­i­ence for many choir members.