Lea Gabral

October 12, 1946, Tallinn
Member of the Estonian Composers' Union since 2012

Pianist and composer Lea Gabral started composing music in 1997. Her romantic music with somewhat sad undertone is meditative and based on tonality. Images of mood and motives of nature can be found in her music. Her ouvre consists of vocal music and music for piano. Gabral has composed choral music for mixed choir (e.g. "Kaarli Mass" for tenor, mixed choir and organ, 1999 and "Gloria" for mixed choir and organ, 2006), female choir and solo songs. Mostly she has composed vocal music on her own lyrics. As a pianist, Gabral has written a lot of pieces for piano, including music for children (e.g. compilation Piano Pieces for Children’s School, 2013).

Lea Gabral started her piano studies at the Tallinn Children’s Music School with Ülev Saare. In 1965, she graduated as a pianist from the Tallinn Music High School and in 1970, at the Tallinn State Conservatoire with Prof. Lilian Semper.

In 1970–2013, Gabral hold the position of concertmaster and piano teacher at the Tallinn Ballet School. Currently she gives piano lessons at Merivälja School. Gabral has also been active as a choral, ensemble and solo singer. She has participated in ensemble Collage (1970–1976) and Tallinn Chamber Choir (1982–1987), also in chamber choir Crede of Church of the Holy Sprit in Tallinn (1995–2009) and concert choir of St. Charles’ Church in Tallinn (1997–2016).

Lea Garbral has received several awards at the composition contests: the 1st prize for the song "Vooremaa" and the 3rd prize for the song "Land, Which Heart Is in the Song" (2000) at the Vooremaa contest, the 3rd prize for the song "Little Christmas Tree" at the Christmas songs contest in Tallinn (2003), the 1st prize for the song "Vocalise Little Mermaid" at the fairytale music contest (2005). Gabral has released four author CDs ("Ave Maria" 2005, "Lävel" 2009, "Ma leian sind lilles" 2010 and "Moment" 2013), additionally, her music is available on CD-s „Sa südames nüüd pane kõik küünlad põlema“ (2000) and "Mälumaastikul õitsevad meelespead" (2006).

Lea Gabral's works have been published by Edition 49.

© EMIK 2013
Updated in October 2017

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