The elements of the Helsinki Early Music Festival are moving and vivid baroque music as well as interaction and cooperation between accomplished Finnish and international musicians – often seasoned with elements from other art forms. 

The association Encanto Music is the responsible organiser of the festival. One of the main objectives of the association, in addition to arranging vibrant interdisciplinary art events, is to create a framework for cooperation between artists from different countries. New ideas are created at the boundaries and we get to experience surprising things – sometimes successful, sometimes colliding. Friction surfaces cause sparks, throwing us in new directions.

The first festival under the name Encanto Festival in 2014 was planned by Vappu Helasvuo, Laura Kajander and Thomas Pitt. The artistic director of the three following festivals was the German baroque violinist Georg Kallweit, who has continued to work remotely in the artistic planning team after that. From 2019 onward, the artistic planning team has consisted of Marianna Henriksson, Laura Kajander, Anthony Marini and Lea Pekkala.

Beginning in 2020, the name of the festival has been Helsinki Early Music Festival and the main partner has been the Finnish Baroque Orchestra (FiBO), which also performs in some of the concerts. Encanto Music’s activities besides the festivals are presented on their the web page encanto.fi.

In October 2023 the festival is arranged for the 10 th time and the theme is X, describing the unknown, a meeting place, the number ten, a kiss, the end of something, a choice, danger, death or mystery. The meanings meeting place and crossing rise to the surface in the international cooperation projects, which also travel to the partner festivals in Germany, Norway and Poland.

The main artists in 2023 are in addition to the Finnish Baroque Orchestra the RIAS Chamber Choir (Germany), the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Germany) and Barokkanerne (Norway). They will perform in their own concerts as well as together with musicians from the Finnish Baroque Orchestra