Pic: Kim Saarinen
Choir ideology
Petra Poutanen has the honor of leading two amazing choirs Väki and Tampereen Ihankaikkinen Kuninkaallinen Tuomiokuoro. They have such a high spirit and daring that it surprises her every single week. These two choirs were established 2019 and they have become heart warming organisms that both have a totally unique path and repertoire.
Petra is a choir anarchist of some sort. She knows that the meaning of life is to sing and dance together and that the quality of a performance is not dependent on entrance examinations and the level of one’s technical music skills doesn’t necessarily relate to the artistic level.
In the spring 2025 Petra is releasing 18 songs as sheet music through Sulasol and 14 of them so that they are also sang and can be streamed by the name Petra Poutanen - album name Todisteita siitä mitä olemme. Most of those songs have been first written to a theater play but are now arranged into a cappella.
Pic: Atte Tornikoski
Tampereen Ihankaikkinen Kuninkaallinen Tuomiokuoro
The High and Mighty Doomsday Choir of Tampere
Väki - PEOPLE/FOLK
This choir was founded in 2019 to be a playground for professional musicians, actors and other creative spirits. It has been selling out its performance Vastauksia for two autumns now. It is study of human being by playing a game of cult, religions and ideologies were all of them are praised as equal. Vastauksia is build around a concept of urban cathedrals - profane spaces with a sacred sounding echo and its songs are composed by Petra Poutanen and movement directed by Reetta-Kaisa Iles.
Choirs other core lies in Finnish Folk Music and improvisation. It is an ambitious group where the goal is to challenge and develop it’s members musical skills and learn tools to make music of the moment. It doesn’t carry the load of certain aesthetics. It aims to bring out the best of it’s members and have as many genres and sound ideals as it has got singers. Humour and daring are one of it’s strongest tools, which is already written in it’s name.
Väki made a performance Kalliolle, kukkulalle, sillan alle (Songs of home) about homelessness and has been selling out the performances now for two autumns. It is performed in a skating ramp under a bridge. It was selected to be a part of Tampereen Teatterikesä main program in august 2025.
This choir was founded in 2019 to be an improvising folk music choir for everyone. It is a performing choir without any assumptions of certain musical skills. It respects it’s members as artists with whatever musical background they have. The aim is to expand ones roles in a group and learn to communicate through music and always sing about something that has a meaning.
Pic:Kim Saarinen
Pic: Fiberphoto
OTHER CHOIR PROJECTS:
Petra Poutanen lead the female choir Tellus for about ten years and during that time it tackled even the biggest topics fearlessly but with respect. They made projects like an impacting performance based on the texts written by women consigned to prison camps in the Finnish Civil War: Susinartut – 1918 (Wolf bitches – 1918) which was noticed all over Finland. Susinartut was a performance where texts written by women who were in prisoner camps in Finnish civil war were finally heard. Another big effort was Kiitti Vitusta where the choir swore by the Mother Devil in a ritual that frees not only the choir but the audience as well from their confining shackles.
Petra Poutanen has also been singing a lot of improvised concerts for example with RAMA VOCALS. It is is a choir gathered among the students and alumnis and has performed for example with Bobby McFerrin and Gimme5. Petra Poutanen has been a visiting soloist for this choir in different festivals in four countries. Petra also studied choir conducting in RAMA Vocal Center, which is recognized internationally as a leading European center of innovative choir leading studies within the style of pop/jazz/impro.
Yöpuolia - On the Nightside
Pic: Atte Tornikoski
Yöpuolia is performed by the two choirs lead by Petra Poutanen. They are also composed by her and directed by Antti Laukkarinen. The three stories depicted in ‘Yöpuolia’ come from a collection of short stories, Tunturien yöpuolta (1934), by the renowned writer and ethnologist Samuli Paulaharju. During his life, Paulaharju recorded an unparalleled volume of stories, traditions and folklore of the North, resonating with Sámi names, local wisdom and cultural practices, but his only work of fiction Tunturien yöpuolta stands as an autonomous work of art. It has been translated into English, German, Polish and Italian.
The Old Priest of Kierua
This story traces its roots to a time when Christianity had just reached the northern lands, confronting ancient nature worship and stirring the collective imagination. In the tale, the deceased and once-beloved priest of the Kierua parish has returned to haunt the living, having in his life sinned by repeatedly stealing and drinking the sacramental wine. Attempts are made to lay him to his final rest — invoking both God and the Devil — but in the end, only the old troll of Kalsa wielding the forces of nature can grant him peace.
The Treasure of Rich Hannu
This tale is somewhat more recent than the others. Here, human greed drives the quest to find the legendary treasure hidden deep within the chambers of the earth. Hunters, officials, clergymen and even a band of brazen miners try their luck, but the forces of nature prove greater still, humbling humanity and reminding it of its place.
Suongil, the Great Shaman
The oldest story in the collection, Suongil, unfolds with the purity and inevitability of a classical tragedy. A great leader succumbs to his own weakness and, spurred on by others, commits a grave transgression against the sacred norms of his community. From that moment, his downfall is set in motion, leading inexorably to his final act: casting himself into the churning rapids.