Ilmavoimien Big Band & Olli Soikkeli: DJANGO!

Maxim opens at 16:00 and the concert starts at 19:00. Tickets at the door 35 € (if available) - on Ticketmaster the price rises to the door price on the event evening at 18:00.

The event ticket also functions as a public transport ticket on Vilkun buses in the Kuopio region. Travel rights are activated on the event evening at 16:00 and remain valid until 00:00. The ticket is valid in any form (PDF, mobile or paper) and includes exchange rights.

An assistant receives free entry with the assisted person's ticket. Wheelchair access is not fully accessible, so customers using a wheelchair or requiring special assistance are asked to contact in advance: info@maximkuopio.fi. The concert hall has a limited number of seats on concert evenings that cannot be reserved - seats are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Ilmavoimien Big Band and guitarist Olli Soikkeli meet to honour Django Reinhardt's music. The conductor is Mikko Hassinen. The programme includes Reinhardt's best-known pieces - Belleville, Blues en mineur, Appel indirect and others - in big band arrangements, to which Soikkeli brings improvisation in the gypsy jazz tradition.

Olli Soikkeli is a guitarist from Nurmes based in New York who has performed at venues including Birdland, Blue Note, Iridium and Lincoln Center. He has released 12 albums, the most recent being Olli Soikkeli New York Trio (2025) and Olli Soikkeli & Cesar Garabini: Choro Novo (2024).

Mikko Hassinen studied jazz, composition and music theory at the Sibelius Academy. During his 30-year career, he has performed in Scandinavia, Europe, South America and the USA. He served as artistic director and principal conductor of Umo Jazz Orchestra in 2017-18, and in 2014 his album Elektro GT was awarded the Teosto Prize. The Finnish Jazz Federation awarded Hassinen the prize for 2021 [the description is cut off in the source text].