n 23 and 24 November, a delegation led by Kotka Mayor Esa Sirviö, the Chairman of the City Council Pasi Hirvonen and the Chairman of the City Board Sami Virtanen will visit the city of Kotka, Tallinn.The visit included a meeting of the mayors of Tallinn and Kotka today and a joint concert of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Kymi Sinfonietta in the Estonia Concert Hall in the evening.

According to Tallinn Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, the twin town of Kotka has been our friend and role model for a very long time. "Tallinn and the city of Kotka have been friends since 1955, making the city one of our friends," Kõlvart said. "So we are bound by common memories and by the sea, as both cities are located by the sea. The tradition of Tallinn Maritime Days was also inspired by the Kotka Maritime Days, but we would also like to work together in the future on green city issues."

According to Esa Sirviö, Mayor of Kotka, the two cities have a lot to offer each other. "We are ready to cooperate on green issues, especially in the coming year when Tallinn will be the European Green Capital. The city of Kotka is called the capital of parks and we have 400 islands, so we have common points of contact and we have a lot to learn from each other," Sirviö said.

The musical cornerstone of tonight's concert in the Estonia Concert Hall is a collaboration between two orchestras - the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Kymi Sinfonietta. Fasch's baroque-style Suite and Martinů's passionate Double Concerto highlight the two ensembles' ability to play a very diverse repertoire. The crowning glory of the concert will be the young Richard Strauss' Burlesque, one of the composer's favorite works, and four interludes from the opera Intermezzo. The piano solos will be performed by Irina Zahharenkova, a pianist well known both in Estonia and Finland, conducted by Olari Elts. 

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra is Estonia's only permanent string orchestra under the artistic direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, and Kymi Sinfonietta is the representative orchestra of two Finnish cities, Kotka and Kouvola, under the artistic direction of Olari Elts.

The city of Kotka is Tallinn's oldest twin town - the twinning agreement between the two cities was signed in 1955. In 2020, the 65th anniversary of the friendship between Tallinn and Kotka was to be celebrated with joint concerts by two city orchestras - the Kymi Sinfonietta and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra - in both cities, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these were canceled and will now take place in November 2022.

On 25-26 November, the Tallinn delegation in turn will be on a reception visit to Kotka, where several meetings are scheduled and a joint concert will be held in the Kotka Concert Hall on 25 November.