MustonenFest Starts This Week

Text Stewart Johnson
Photo Andrei Chertkov

Wherever you are this week in Estonia, there will be a concert near you happening as part of the MustonenFest concert series. For 12 nights in Pärnu, Laulasmaa, Tallinn, Tartu, or Narva, you can enjoy classical music performances by artists from Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Israel, and France.

The MustonenFest concert series isn’t only classical music of course. It includes a wide range of musical traditions and styles. Choral, classical, baroque—it’s all there. This entire festival is for people who have been lifelong fans of great music, and for newcomers eager to explore these genres in a live setting.

MustonenFest is named for its founder, Andres Mustonen. Mustonen himself often conducts and performs in these concerts. Since 1989, 37 years ago, this concert series has been a staple of Estonian musical culture. But it hasn’t always been called “MustonenFest”. It was originally called “Hortus Musicuse Väravatorni barokkmuusika päevad”, or in English “The Gate Tower Baroque Music Days of Hortus Musicus”, an ensemble also formed by Mustonen in 1972. The name was shortened in 2011 for marketing purposes.

Concerts begin in Pärnu on 22 January. The next night, 23 January, will be at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, 24–25 January in Tallinn, 26 January in Tartu, and the rest of the concerts will also be in Tallinn, except 31 January, in Narva. More information about individual concerts is available in Estonian here, and tickets are available here.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Arvo Pärt Classical Music Events in Tallinn Laulasmaa MustonenFest Narva Pärnu Tartu