Kammarkören Bel Canto

Kammarkören Bel Canto is a chamber choir from Jakobstad, Finland, and was founded by Dan Lönnqvist in 1989. The choir has performed at almost 180 concerts with an extensive repertoire. Examples of project-based productions are Franz Schubert’s Mass in G major, Gioacchini Rossini’s Messe Solennelle, Anton Dvorak’s Mass in D major, Felix Mendelssohn’s Lobgesangsymfoni, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Motets, the Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem, and Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.

Kammarkören Bel Canto, with around 30 singers, operates within Jakobstads svenska arbetarinstitut (Jakobstad’s Swedish Workers’ Institute). The choir has performed mainly in Jakobstad and its surroundings, but has also done concert tours around the Nordic countries, the Baltics and other parts of Europe (including Ukraine, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy). Bel Canto has collaborated with e.g. Jakobstads Sinfonietta, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and Cracow Percussion Group, as well as on a project basis with other choirs in Jakobstad.

Bel Canto mainly works with a cappella singing. Many well-known soloists have been the choir’s guests, especially at the traditional Christmas concerts in Pedersöre church in Jakobstad. In July 2005, the choir won third place in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. Marguerithe Sandstedt-Granvik is Bel Canto’s vocal coach and since the autumn of 2024 Susanne Westerlund functions as conductor.