Pauliina Fred
is a flute player, through and through. She has specialized in historical flutes and plays various types of whistles from Renaissance recorders to the C flute of the Romantic Era. She has even been seen jamming Bossa nova on a silver flute. Pauliina loves music by Mozart and is inspired by new music played on old-time instruments; she is totally at home with French Baroque music.

Pauliina regularly plays in the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, the Finnish Baroque Orchestra and the Oslo Baroque Orchestra. She is also a member of the Bravade recorder quartet, the Zetes woodwinds quintet, Bellman Trio and the SAMA Folk Baroque Ensemble. Pauliina has performed solo and as a chamber and orchestra musician, not merely in Finland, but in other parts of Europe and even the United States of America and Japan. You can hear her play music by Naxos, Aeolus, Pilfink Records and Bis. Pauliina has received her master’s in music from both the Sibelius Academy, in Helsinki, and the Utrecht Conservatory.

Aapo Häkkinen
(1976) began his musical education as a chorister at Helsinki Cathedral. He took up the harpsichord at the age of 13, studying with Elina Mustonen and Olli Porthan (organ) at the Sibelius Academy. From 1995 to 1998 he studied with Bob van Asperen at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory and from 1996 to 2000 with Pierre Hantaï in Paris. He was also fortunate to enjoy the generous guidance and encouragement of Gustav Leonhardt.

Immediately after obtaining his diploma in 1998, Aapo Häkkinen won second prize and the VRT prize at the Bruges International Harpsichord Competition. He was also awarded the Norddeutscher Rundfunk special prize Musikpreis 1997 for his interpretations of Italian music. Aapo Häkkinen has appeared as soloist in Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal, Hungary, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam (Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron, Konzerthaus Berlin, Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Göttinger Händel-Festspiele, Kölner Philharmonie, Rheingau Musik Festival, Bachfest der Neuen Bachgesellschaft, London Lufthansa Festival, Flanders Festival, Bergen Festival, Eszterháza Haydn Festival, Washington Library of Congress, Copenhagen Tivoli Festival, St Petersburg Early Music Festival, Warsaw Philharmonia, Cracow Philharmonia, Forum Musicum Wroclaw, Madrid Auditorio Nacional, Festival de Música Antigua de Sevilla, Culturgest Lisbon, Gulbenkian Música, Musik Meran, Bolzano Festival, Israel Festival, Musashino Cultural Foundation, Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Festival Internacional Cervantino, Festival de Morelia, Kuhmo Chamber Music, Helsinki Festival, Turku Music Festival...)

Aapo Häkkinen is also known as a distinguished chamber musician and director (Musica Aeterna, Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Croatian Baroque Ensemble, Tampere Filharmonia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Tirgu Mures Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, Cork Baroque Orchestra, Tallinn Baroque Orchestra, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Helsinki Chamber Choir, Key Ensemble, Tapiola Chamber Choir) in collaboration with artists such as Enrico Baiano, Jay Bernfeld, Reinhard Goebel, Monica Groop, Ilya Grubert, Werner Güra, Pierre Hantaï, Jorma Hynninen, Erich Höbarth, Soile Isokoski, María Cristina Kiehr, Topi Lehtipuu, Julia Lezhneva, Riccardo Minasi, Alexander Rudin, Carolyn Sampson, and Dmitry Sinkovsky. He has conducted Handel's Acis and Galatea (dir. Vilppu Kiljunen) and Haydn's L'Isola disabitata (dir. Johanna Freundlich) for the Finnish Chamber Opera, Carissimi's Jephte (dir. Juha Mustanoja) for Kokkola Opera, Pergolesi's La Serva padrona (dir. Ozren Prohić) for the Croatian National Theatre, Telemann's Pimpinone (dir. Ville Saukkonen) for Rovaniemi Korundi, and Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea (dir. Vilppu Kiljunen) for the Finnish National Opera.

Aapo Häkkinen has recorded for the labels Aeolus, Alba, Avie, Cantus, Deux-Elles, and Naxos, and for European radio and television companies such as DLF, MDR, NDR, WDR, BR, SR, SWR, and VRT. A writer and broadcaster about many aspects of the early music world, Häkkinen hosts his own programme on Classic FM in Finland. Besides the harpsichord, he regularly performs on the organ and on the clavichord. He has commissioned, given premières, and recorded music by Lucio Garau, Eero Hämeenniemi, Mário Laginha, Jyrki Linjama, Jukka Tiensuu, and Tapio Tuomela. Aapo Häkkinen has edited a series of 17th century Florentine keyboard music for Ut Orpheus Edizioni. He teaches at the Sibelius Academy and at international masterclasses. He is Artistic Director of the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and of the Helsinki Music Centre Early Music Series as well as the Janakkala Baroque Festival.