About us

The Helsinki Chamber Choir (Helsingin kamarikuoro) is a GRAMMY-Award-winning professional chamber choir, originally founded in 1962 as the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir. The group adopted its current name in 2005.

The Helsinki Chamber Choir collaborates extensively with both Finnish and international partners. Regular collaborators include the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Festival, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Musica nova Helsinki. In recent years, the choir has performed at numerous international festivals and concert venues, such as Acht Brücken (Cologne), Musiq3 (Brussels), Musik Meran (Italy), Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), and Amare (The Hague). Other partners have included Ars Nova Copenhagen, Det Norske Solistkor, Ensemble Recherche, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, NeoQuartet and Uusinta Ensemble, as well as several Finnish orchestras and festivals. In addition to performances in Finland, the choir has toured the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Scandinavia, and Russia. It collaborates regularly with the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) through radio and television broadcasts.

The choir’s repertoire is broad, ranging from medieval music to world premieres, and from a cappella music to symphonic works and music theatre. In 2024, the choir premiered five new works for chamber choir and jazz orchestra in collaboration with the Sointi Jazz Orchestra. To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025, the choir commissioned and premiered four new works for choir and Baroque orchestra in partnership with the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. The Helsinki Chamber Choir performs in varying formations, from a single singer to more than forty, and is particularly renowned for its performances of contemporary music. Since 2005, the choir has premiered nearly 100 works, including large-scale music theatre pieces, and has presented more than 40 Finnish premieres.

The choir records regularly and has received numerous awards for its recordings, including a GRAMMY, an Emma Award, an International Classical Music Award (ICMA), Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (three times), Finnish Choral Record of the Year (three times), Gramophone Editor’s Choice (twice), and the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s Record of the Year. Amongst its award-winning recordings are the album Reconnaissance featuring music by Kaija Saariaho; Passio by Arvo Pärt; and Beat Furrer: Works for Choir and Ensemble. Recordings of music by Alex Freeman, Perttu Haapanen, and Matthew Whittall have also received accolades.

Since 2007, the choir’s Artistic Director has been Professor Nils Schweckendiek. The choir has worked with numerous conductors and choral directors. The Finnish Radio Chamber Choir’s Artistic Directors were Harald Andersén, Kaj-Erik Gustafsson, Ilmo Riihimäki, Eric-Olof Söderström, and Timo Nuoranne. The first artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir from 2005 to 2007 was Kimmo Hakola.

The Helsinki Chamber Choir is a member of Tenso, the European network for professional chamber choirs.