Tanel Joamets

b. 14.09.1968 Tartu
Member of the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians since 2001
Member of the International Eduard Tubin Society since 2000

Tanel Joamets has graduated from Estonian Academy of Music in 1994 with Valdur Roots. Great importance upon him had the classes of improvisation with Anto Pett. In 1998 he got a scholarship for post-graduate studies in Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

He has won prizes in Estonian National Piano Competitions in 1993 and 1994. He has been the finalist in two International Scriabin Piano Competitions: in 1995 (Nizhny-Novgorod) he won the diploma and in 2000 (Moscow) he became a prize-winner. In 1996 he won the special prize as a member of improvisation ensemble Ekstemporistid (Extemporisers) in Competition of Young Culture (Düsseldorf).

Since 1994 he works as a lecturer of piano and improvisation in Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and since 1997 in Heino Eller Tartu Music School.

Tanel Joamets has given solo and chamber concerts in Estonia, Finland, Canada, Australia, Germany,  England, Sweden, Holland, Latvia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey. After his success in Scriabin Competition in 2000, his career has developed rapidly, he has toured every year everywhere over Russia and Kazakhstan visiting more than 100 cities, including major centres like Moscow, Kazan, Rostov, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Habarovsk and Vladivostok.

Tanel Joamets has played piano concertos of Ravel, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Scriabin and Schnittke with different symphony and chamber orchestras of Estonia and Russia. Many of Russians consider him the Scriabin-player number one in nowadays world. His interpretations of Debussy, Grieg, Rachmaninov, Schubert have been appreciated highly too. Listeners and critics have been astonished by width and sensitiveness of colour nuances, depth of concentration, non-academic freshness of his music-making. He has premiered Estonian solo piano and chamber music (Tõnu Kõrvits, Lepo Sumera, Jüri Reinvere). In addition to different chamber projects every year in Estonia, he has played several times chamber music with musicians of Chamber Orchestra of Lapland (Lapin Kamariorkesteri).

Tanel Joamets has promoted Estonian musical life. In 2000–2006 he was the founder, artistic director and one of the performers of Tartu International Improvisation Festival IMPROVIZZ. He has initiated series of piano music in Tartu University Hall (Pianissimo in 2007/2008 and White Piano in 2008/2009), there were performers from Estonia and abroad. In addition, he has promoted many chamber music projects in Finland with his violinist brother Lasse Joamets and has participated in theatrical performances in Estonian National Opera and Theatre Vanemuine.

Tanel Joamets was awarded the prize of the Estonian Cultural Endowment Tartu expert group for enriching the cultural life in Tartu (2007), cultural award „Kultuuripärl” (cultural pearl, 2015) and has received a scholarship of the year from the Endowment for Music of Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2010).

Tanel Joamets has the widest colour-range, from blindingly shining and heavily intense forte to the most refined nuances of the piano. That kind of piano, when You keep your breath listening how the soul of music trembles.
Karina Kagramanova. – Kultura No. 34, September 7-13, 2000, Moscow

Tanel Joamets`s interpretation had a fire, technical level and poetic convincingness. The Concert was like one deep breath. Pianist walked in his sound and tempo choices sometimes as if on the knife-edge, but at the best moments such risky walking became the poetic raisin of interpretation.
Evi Arujärv. Tanel Joametsa tuline klaveriõhtu Skrjabiniga. – Postimees, June 11, 2002

Joamets’s sound palette is very rich, covering the almost unheard (but at the same time sonorous!) pianissimo to deafening fortissimo.
Kadri-Ann Sumera. Kõla ja kirg Tartu ülikooli aulas. – Sirp, April 8, 2009

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