I face the same challenge every Christmas: piecing songs together from random internet sources to play holiday music at home. They’re rarely in a convenient key or format! This year, my son’s early excitement for the holidays—starting with the first snow in mid-November—inspired me to get into the Christmas spirit sooner. So, I decided to… Continue reading
The Tallinn Baroque Orchestra celebrated the April 1st with a program of folías and dances mostly from the renaissance era. The folías are associated with foolishness which makes a good connection to the tradition of April Fools. Our orchestra’s leader, composer, arranger, program author, mentor, and harpist Andrew Lawrence-King on the origin of the folías:… Continue reading
Something new and exciting is happening in the early music scene of Estonia. I’m lending the text from a program leaflet of yesterday’s concert, written by Taavi-Mats Utt: “The Tallinn Baroque Orchestra (TBO) has been active for 36 years – it was founded in 1987 by Ivan Monighetti, Taivo Niitvägi, and Egmont Välja. TBO was… Continue reading
February began with performing some baroque music with my good colleagues from the ensemble Floridante. The concert was part of the annual MustonenFest, a long-standing international music festival that explores music from different genres and centuries. The program is put together by the legendary violinist and founder of the 50-year-old early music ensemble Hortus Musicus,… Continue reading
This research paper was written in 2013 as part of my Ph.D. studies in the educational technology program at the University of Tartu. I submitted it to Music Education Research, but it was not accepted. I did not resubmit it, and now, ten years later, I am publishing it here. This article is very interesting;… Continue reading
December 28.-29. 2022. Corelli Baroque Orchestra Soloists, Tartu Youth Choir, conductors Martin Sildos and Markus Leppoja. Tartu St. Paul’s and Tallinn St. John’s. The Corelli private agency organizes at least two annual orchestra projects: Eastern and Christmas. However, this time the orchestra was down to a handful of players, so let’s better call in an… Continue reading
The album “A Forgotten Day,” featuring author songs and poems by well-known poets, reflects on life in all its emotional shades, speaking of longing, hope, disappointment, pain, and joy, but above all, love. “Since the beginning of time, the theme of loneliness, the need for understanding and love has touched people. Today, this need is… Continue reading
Peeter Prints’ (1961) sheet music publication “Ballads, Preludes, Arias, Etudes, Blues” is likely familiar to all classical guitar students in Estonia from the beginning of the 1990s until now. The enduring interest in Prints’ music cannot be explained simply by the fact that there is a lack of printed music by Estonian authors for classical… Continue reading
By the early 1600s, the world was undergoing significant changes. Copernicus had placed the Sun at the center of the universe, Columbus had discovered America, the Church was going through the Reformation, and philosophers introduced new ideas about humanism and the individual’s role in society. As a result, rhetorics became an important part of school… Continue reading
It is not often that a theorbo player has the opportunity to premiere a contemporary piece of music that was originally composed for their instrument. However, in 2018, Estonian composer Ardo Ran Varres wrote the soundtrack for the movie “Self Made Cameraman,” directed by Hardi Volmer, and decided to incorporate the theorbo into certain sections… Continue reading