G Livelab Tampere

G Livelab Tampere offers a new kind of live music experience built on quality programming, state of the art audio facilities and modern design. The world famous loudspeaker company Genelec is the main sponsor (that’s why G in the name).

Situated in a historical red brick building in the heart of the city, G Livelab Tampere will open its doors to the public in summer 2019. The programming has started and the first semester will include international jazz acts such as Bianca Gismonti Trio (BRA), World Service Project (UK), UMO & Stefan Pasborg (DK), Trygve Seim Helsinki Songs (NOR, EST, FIN), Juhani Aaltonen & Arild Andersen (FIN, NOR), and Finnish cats Timo Lassy, Herd, Mopo, Elifantree and Raoul Björkenheim Triad to name a few. The full Autumn 2019 program will be released in April 2019. The program will include all genres: jazz, folk, world, pop/rock, chamber music, electronic music etc. The amount of concerts per year will be 150-200. The capacity of the venue is 250 people.

Designed according to a music first philosophy, it is the second venue under the G Livelab brand. The first one was founded in Helsinki in 2016 and has quickly become the go-to venue for music lovers and artists alike. Both venues are 100% owned by the Finnish Musicians’ Union, a membership organization for musicians from all genres. The union was founded in 1917 and has 3500 members around the country.

Besides the two venues, Finnish Musicians’ Union owns a radio station Radio Helsinki and three artists’ residences, in London, Berlin and Finland. The union releases their own magazine Muusikko (Musician), is active in the development of the music scene in various ways, and gives legal and other help for the members. Musicians’ Union is supporting the Safe Haven Helsinki, (hiap.fi) an organization that arranges residencies for visual artists and music professionals, whose freedom of expression or personal safety in threatened in their home countries. The iconic Egyptian freedom fighter musician Ramy Essam is one of the residents.

The curator and CEO of G Livelab Tampere is Annamaija Saarela, previous EJN president (2010-2014) and a board member (2004-2008, 2009-2014). Saarela has with her previous organizations UMO Jazz Orchestra, Jazz on the Beach festival and Annamaija Music Company been an EJN member since 2003.