Tõnu Kõrvits
b. April 9, 1969 Tallinn
Member of the Estonian Composers’ Union since 1994
Music of Tõnu Kõrvits is filled with highly poetical imagery. It varies from gentle and fragile sound paintings to dramatic orchestral textures, full of vivacity and passion. Composer's heedful treatment of melodic lines is combined with well-considered timbre choice. Last years Oriental melodic styles and Estonian folk song are reflected in his work.
After completing his studies at the Estonian Academy of Music with Raimo Kangro in 1994, Tõnu Kõrvits was engaged in postgraduate studies with Prof. Jaan Rääts 1994–1998. He has participated in master courses for young arrangers (e.g. with the Metropole Orchestra and conductor Vince Mendoza in Hilversum, Holland, in 1997) and in the master class of composer Stephen Montague in Gdansk, Poland, in 1998.
Since 2001, Tõnu Kõrvits is a lecturer of composition and instrumentation at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He also was the Composer-in-Residence with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra for the 2003/2004 concert season.
Music of Tõnu Kõrvits has been performed at several festivals, including ArtGenda (Copenhagen, 1996, Rainbird`s Home), Usedomer Musikfestival (1999), Lockenhaus (1999, For You, the Messenger of Night, commissioned by Festival Committee), World Saxophone Congress (Montreal, 2000, Assignation), Europamusicale (Germany, 2004, Afterglow), Musica nos unit (Gdansk, 2004, Wildflower; premiere of Wild Birds), Mänttä Music Festival (Finland, 2005, Safra, commissioned by the festival), International Guitar Festival Münster (Germany, 2006, The Songs On The Bridge Of Encounters, commissioned by the festival), World Music Days (Hong Kong/Macau, 2007, Beyond the Solar Fields), Cellissimo (Adelaide, Australia, 2008, Helios Helios, commissioned by the festival), Lux Musicae (Siunto, Finland, 2009, Voice that Disappeared, commissioned by the festival), Les Boreales (Caen, 2009, music for Carl Dreyer's silent feature film La Passion selon Jeanne d’Arc).
In 1994, Tõnu Kõrvits’ Concerto Semplice for guitar and chamber orchestra was chosen to represent Estonia at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris, The Sign Of Love for symphony orchestra participated at Rostrum in Vienna, 2003. The Days of Glory represented Estonia in the Millennium Project of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In addition to writing contemporary compositions in the classical idiom, Tõnu Kõrvits is known as an accomplished arranger and orchestrator of popular music, he was a nominee for the Estonian Music Award ‘98 in the Best Arranger category. He has composed soundtracks for several animation films. The most popular of them is Priit Tender's film Viola, which has won several international prizes. Mati Laas's puppet film Kings of the Time was named the best Estonian film of 2008.
His music has been played by Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Macao Symphony Orchestra, Nordic Symphony Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, Ensemble de Basse-Normandie, Amstel Saxophone Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Swedish Radio Choir, guitarists Reinbert Evers and Klaus Jäckle etc. and as well as Estonian orchestras and interpreters Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Nyyd Ensemble, conductors Olari Elts, Anu Tali, Tõnu Kaljuste, Risto Joost, Paul Mägi, saxophonist Virgo Veldi, bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann, flutist Monika Mattiesen etc.
Tõnu Kõrvits was awarded The Heino Eller Music Prize in 2001, the Young Artist Prize by the Board of the President’s Cultural Foundation in 2002 and the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in 2004. Kõrvits’ symphonic work Eldorado won the Third Prize at the International Lepo Sumera Composition Contest for Young Composers in Tallinn in 2003. In 2006 he received Cultural Endowment’s Live and Shine grant and in 2007 was awarded the Annual Music Prize of the Estonian Music Council for his contribution to Estonian orchestral music.
© EMIC 2005
(updated January 2009)
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