Listening to Helsinki opens a unique, audiovisual lens into city culture by uncovering the stories behind the music, and the music behind the stories.

On this guided city walk, you visit many of the main sights in the city center and explore Helsinki through musical culture, using sound and story as an interpretive lens. We uncover how music reflects social change, political history, and urban identity. In addition, the Music allows us to experience the city more intuitively, emotionally, and with historical awareness.

As you walk through central Helsinki, carefully selected music examples are linked to specific places and moments in history. Nature, architecture, public  spaces, politics, language debates, and everyday life form the backdrop against which Finnish music evolved. At the same time, musical traditions become points of entry into broader themes: language and power, nature and climate, nation-building, and the role of culture in a young capital. Jean Sibelius appears as a national icon, and as a figure shaped by his time, his environment, and the cultural debates of his era.

 By "Listening to Helsinki", you will experience the Finnish capital in an immersive and surprising way.

Each guest receives their own audio receiver with volume control and in-ear headphones (own ear-phones can be used, if compatible).