10.1.2024
It all started in 1980
The first Naantali Music Festival was held in 1980 on the initiative of Professor Arto Noras and with a strong support of the City of Naantali. It has from the very beginning been strongly oriented towards chamber music. The very first concert, of music by Mozart, Vivaldi and Brahms, was in Naantali Church.
Our history in figures
In those 40 seasons Naantali Music Festival has provided performance venues for 692 chamber musicians, 58 conductors, 58 orchestras, 47 chamber music ensembles, and 31 choirs and vocal ensembles, performing nearly 3,000 works at nearly 1,000 concerts to a combined audience of about half a million concertgoers.
Commitment, warmth and love
Arto Noras was the artistic director of the festival more than 40 years, from the year 1980 until summer 2022, when Elina Vähälä began her period as the new artistic director. There have been four Executive Directors over this period. The 23-year term of Tiina Tunturi ended in November 2020 when Suvi Innilä took up the position of Managing Director. The Chairs of the Supervisory Board and Board of Directors are also long serving. The music festivals have always been prepared with strong commitment and great warmth and love.
42th festival
The 42th festival was celebrated in summer 2022 after the summer 2020 event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer 2021 event was arranged as a miniature online festival and a few concerts were also held as public events in the autumn.
We would like to wish the audience of Naantali Music Festival continued enjoyable concert experiences in future seasons!
The power of music
As Arto Noras observed in the Naantali Music Festival 40 th anniversary Festschrift: “Let the power of music carry us forward – enjoy the ride!”
Stories from behind the scenes of Naantali Music Festival and the reflections of artists on the importance of this event can be heard in a video podcast series to be launched here a little bit later.
