HAPPY BIG BAND WEEKEND
Our next (already 12th) international festival Happy Big Band Weekend will be there already on 28th-29th of March 2026 in Tartu and Tallinn, Estonia !!!
Bianca Rantala, photo Teet Raik

Big Band Tartu met a lot of guest conductors and other big bands during all the years of activity, with whom we continued to communicate. So we know our sommon interests, wish to lissen and share eachothers music and ideas, like to meet and study something new. Thatfor we organize already 12th International Happy Big Band Weekend 28th-29th of March 2026 in Tartu and Tallinn, Estonia. To meet friends again and share our enthusiasm with a jazz-loving audience.

This time the star of the weekend will be Ms. Bianca Rantala - a conductor, composer, arranger, singer, pianist and pedagogue with Finnish and Estonian roots, whose work and repertoire selection will be performed by Big Band Tartu. Bianca's work is appreciated for its depth, innovation and colorful orchestration, moving effortlessly between genres with both intelligence and playfulness. She was awarded the title of Composer of the Year 2025 at the Estonian Jazz Awards and has also won the Nordic Composition Contest (2023) and the Baltic Big Band Composition Contest (2020). From autumn 2026 she is expected to be the resident composer of the UMO Jazz Orchestra.

Our important international guest will be Boston Promenade Big Band (conductor Aapo Wikstén). Founded in the student union of Helsinki School of Business (today part of Aalto University) in 1964, Boston Promenade has been entertaining the crowds ever since. Today, Boston Promenade is a renowned top-tier entertainer in the Finnish music scene, performing at high-profile corporate events, music festivals, and university celebrations. This monster of a band will literally blow you away with a dozen horns, four singers, groovy arrangements, and its glamorous stage presence. Boston is best known for combining big band classics with iconic party bangers that will make you shake it like there’s no tomorrow.

From further away from Tartu will join to the festival MUBA Big Band (conductor Karl Madis Pennar, former guitarist of BB Tartu) and rather young Pärnu Music School Big Band (conductor Emily Urla, who also played with us).

Also we are happy welcome in our stage Eller Big Band (conductor Tanel Aavakivi), Tartu Sax Choir (conductor Toomas Peterson) and Big Band Tartu, who have the opportunity to perform a program with our guest Bianca Rantala. In our concert in Tallinn will play our dear friends TalTech Big Band (conductors Teet Raik and Markus Eermann, vocal soloist Kristjan Karmo) and Boston Promenade Big Band (conductor Aapo Wikstén).
Boston Promenade Big Band, photo Santtu Salminen


Additional information: Toomas Peterson, +3725188010,  toomas

Thanks for support: 
City of Tartu, Eesti Kultuurkapital, TalTech

NGO Laulu- ja pillimänguselts Con Vivo, Aiandi tee 3-29, Lohkva, 62207 Tartumaa, Estonia, e-mail convivo, phones +372 518 8010