Programme practices at the Sibelius Academy
On this page, you can find information on the preparation of Sibelius Academy programmes and ready-made programme templates.
Who is responsible for the programme?
Production services only lays out programmes for opera, symphony orchestra and separate concerts subject to admission fees.
The event applicant/performer/working group is responsible for the gathering, layout and printing of content for other programmes. The Production Services contact person provides advice if necessary.
Digital programme
It is not necessary to print programmes – you can also only make an electronic version.
You can save your programme file to your Onedrive cloud service. After saving, make the file public so that anyone can open it on their device. Go to the file sharing settings and create a link that is shared with “Anyone”, i.e. no login is required. By default, files are shared only with members of the organisation, so make sure that the document is securely accessible without logging in (for example, use another browser that is not used to log in to university services).
Get a free QR code generator from Google and copy the link to your file there. Download the QR code to your device and print it out or embed it in a Word document with the accompanying text (e.g. “Open the concert programme with this QR code”).
Programme templates and layout
The links will take you to the Word programme templates in Finnish, Swedish and English. The basic template mainly contains a cover page and font sizes for the text inside. A 4-page booklet template outlines the most common type of programme that you can print yourself
Printing a programme
Even though teachers and students currently have an unlimited printing quota, do try to avoid oversizing the programmes – in some cases, even a single concert can produce piles of recycled paper.
Instructions for printing a 4-page booklet
- Download the booklet template via the link and add the desired information to it
- Save the file as a PDF (Save as – select PDF as the file format).
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat
- Print the file and select “BOOKLET” in the “Page size and processing” section
- Do not change the paper size (it should be A4 by default)
- Enable printing on both sides (duplex printing) (short edge). This setting may be slightly difficult to find. In the Mac version, it can be found by clicking on “Printer…” at the bottom of the settings window, then changing the “Double-sided” setting. The default is probably “Off” – change it to “On (Short Edge)”.
- Always run one test print. Do not test the printing gods.
- When a print looks good, select the final quantity and set the printer loose. We recommend checking one more printout on the fly to ensure that the setting has not been reset while printing is underway. A good number of prints per concert is 50.
- The new multifunction printers can be a bit fussy, and they may fall asleep after a few minutes, even if a printing job is still in progress. You should keep an eye on these printers and give their touch screen a poke every now and then.
- We recommend that you start your printing job before the day of the concert to avoid stress.
I want to use a commercial printer for my programme
If necessary, the programmes for opera, symphony orchestra and separate concerts and events subject to admission fees as well as for doctoral recitals can be printed by a commercial printer.
Doctoral students: if it is necessary to have a commercial printer do the programme, click on this link and fill out the order form. The information on the form is sent directly to the producer and AM Digital Printing. This option applies to doctoral concerts.
The recommended number of prints is approximately 50 per concert.
Order programme from a commercial printer
Alternative to programmes: speak!
You can also not make a programme and address the audience directly instead. Speaking makes a performance more memorable and intimate. Simply by speaking, performers bring themselves closer to the audience, lowering the invisible threshold between stage and auditorium. Speaking in front of an audience is exciting, especially if there is no set routine for doing so. The university is a safe place to practice speaking. You should always speak whenever you have the opportunity, so that you can learn how to relax while speaking before an audience.