Andres Mustonen

b. September 1, 1953
Member of Association of Estonian Professional Musicians

Andres Mustonen graduated as a violinist from Tallinn Music High School in 1972 and Tallinn State Conservatory with Prof. Endel Lippus in 1977. He has furthered his studies of early music in Austria and Holland. As an early music specialist, he has lectured and instructed master classes in Estonia and abroad.

As a conductor he has worked with many acknowledged orchestras, such as the Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta R?ga, Great Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, Russian National Academic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Musica Viva Academic Chamber Orchestra. He continuously cooperates with national orchestras of Lithuania and Latvia, city orchestras of Finland and Sweden, Helsinki City Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Vanemuise Symphony Orchestra and with choirs like The State Choir Latvija, Latvian Radio Choir and many choirs from Germany, Sweden, Russia, the Netherlands and Estonia (Girls’ Choir Ellerhein, Estonian National Male Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Chamber Choir Voces Musicales). In 2004, Mustonen conducted Children’s Choirs in Estonian Song Celebration.

As a conductor and violinist his repertoire includes pieces of early music as well as of new music. He places a special significance on religious oratorical masterpieces by composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Bruckner, Heinrich Schütz, Georg Philipp Telemann, Dmitri Shostakovich, Manuel Cardoso and others. Andres Mustonen has given the Estonian premiere of music by Krzysztof Penderecki, Gija Kancheli, T?ru Takemitsu, Sofia Gubaidulina, Vladimir Martõnov and Valentin Silvestrov. Mustonen is in close creative contact with many Estonian composers like Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Galina Grigorjeva and others.

As a valued ensemble partner and conductior, Mustonen has had numerous musical collaborations with singers from Estonia and abroad, such as Pille Lill, Aile Asszonyi, Kädy Plaas, Helen Lokuta, Risto Joost, Mati Turi, Jaakko Ryhänen (Finland), Maacha Deubner (Germany), Inesa Galante (Germany), Monica Groop (Finland), Mikael Bellini (Sweden), Niall Chorell (Ireland-Finland), Inga Kalna (Latvia), J?nis Miši?s (Latvia) Algridas Janutas (Germany-Lithuania). He has also worked with instrumentalists like Patrick Gallois (France), Michala Petri (Denmark), Sergei Stadler (Russia), Oleg Kagan (Russia), Viktor Tretjakov (Russia), Xiang Gao (China), Yuri Bashmet (Ukraine), Gidon Kremer (Latvia), Dmitry Sitkovetsky (Azerbaidzhan), Yoshiko Arai (Japan), Michel Lethiec (France), Aleksei Ljubimov (Russia), Natalia Gutman (Russia), Ivan Monighetti (Switzerland), Ramon Jaffe (Germany), Eliso Virsaladze (Georgia), Peter van Djik (Netherland), Oksana Sinkova, Kalev Kuljus, Indrek Vau, Peep Lassmann and others.

In 1972, he founded an early music consort Hortus Musicus and since then has been its artistic director and conductor. Since the founding of the ensemble, Hortus Musicus has been performing constantly on the world’s concert stages and at music festivals, such as Utrecht Festival, the Malmö Baroque, the Mozart-Fest in Chemnitz, the Jaffa Festival in Israel, the Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London, the Scottish Early Music Festival in Glasgow, the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Bratislava Music Festival, David Oistrakh Festival, KlaraFestival, Tallinn Internatoinal Organ Festival, Rapla Church Music Festival, Festival Trialogus, the Glasperlenspiel Festival and others.

Hortus Musicus’s repertoire includes music from the 8th-20th century. Many composers from Estonia have written pieces for the ensemble. For performing the large-scale works Mustonen founded Hortus Music Academic Orchestra. Hortus Musicus has recorded more than 30 CD-s for Warner Classics, Melodiya, Forte, Antes and others.

His debut on the international jazz festival Jazzkaar 2003 shows Mustonen’s diversity. He has also participated in Viljandi Folk Music Festival, Jazzkaar series Christmas Jazz, Kõpu Sunset Music series and elsewhere.

Mustonen has brought to audience several concert programs where different styles of music are combined and performed by musicians from different field – „Vivaldi Ba-rocks“, „Baroque-Rock – Medieval Musicians On the Path of Rock”, „Rock and Raga“, „Bach in the Night: Silent Swing“. He has also worked with Estonian jazz-musicians like Tanel Ruben (percussion), Taavo Remmel (double bass), Jaak Sooäär (guitar) and others.

With his activities he has expanded and influenced Estonian musical life. He has conducted and directed several concert series (Grand Academy of Music, Gate Tower Music) and festivals like Tallinn Baroque Music Festival, which has grown out of a series of winter baroque music concerts in the historical Tallinn Old Town and the Tartu University Hall.

Andres Mustonen was given the honorary title of Estonian SSR Honored Worker in Arts (1986) and ESSR annual prize for music (1988). In 1995, he received the Estonian State Cultural Award for an outstanding creative activity in Estonian musical life and in 1996 he was named Estonian Radio Musician of the Year. In 1998, he gained the IV Class Order of the White Star of the Republic of Estonia and in 2003 the prize of Estonian Music Council. In 2000, Mustonen was given the title of Honorary Citizen of Tallinn for his work as the artistic director and conductor of the early music consort Hortus Musicus. In 2016, Mustonen was awarded the highest award of the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Armenia a gold medal for his notable contribution in popularization of the Armenian music in abroad, as well as for his contribution to the strengthening of the Armenian-Estonian cultural ties.

© EMIC 2010
(updated in November 2016)

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