Arvo Ratassepp

b. March 17, 1926 Tallinn
d. December 22, 1986 Tallinn

Arvo Ratassepp stood out for his versatile activities – he was a choir conductor, pedagogue, composer, music publicist and critic. He was dedicated to training future choir conductors and promoting new choral music, and he was also at the head of the Estonian song celebrations as a conductor and compilator of repertoire.

After graduating from Tallinn Secondary Science School in 1944, Ratassepp started to study architecture in the Tallinn Polytechnic Institute. In 1945, he was one of the initiators of the male choir there, soon also assistant conductor. In 1949, he began his choral conducting studies at the Tallinn Music School as a student of Jüri Variste and continued with the same teacher at the Tallinn State Conservatory (1950–1955). At the same time, he also studied composition under the guidance of Mart Saare and Villem Kapp (1955–1958).

Ratassepp was a singer of the mixed choir of the Estonian Radio (1947–1955), a choir conducting teacher and deputy director of the Tallinn Music School (1955–1958) and a choir conducting pedagigue at the Tallinn State Conservatory (1958–1986, dean from 1965, head of the department from 1972, professor from 1977).

Arvo Ratassepp conducted the male choir Runo (1949–1966), was the conductor of the Tallinn Chamber Choir (1962–1976), one of the founder of the Mixed Choir of State Choir Conductors (1958) and its conductor. He founded the male choir (1958) and the female choir (1959) of the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences and was their chief conductor. He was the general director of general song celebrations (1965–1985) and youth song celebrations (1967–1982) and one the founder of the Estonian Choral Association (1982).

Arvo Ratassepp has created a large number of choral songs, several of which have been performed at the Estonian song celebrations. His best-known works are two cycles on texts from epic "Kalevipoeg", the cycles "Lausumissõnad" ("Sorcery Spells") and "Mälestusi isast" ("Memories of Father"), the poem "Meri" ("The Sea"), "Liblik" ("Butterfly") and "Eesti mullad" ("Estonian Soils"). He is also the author of several books and numerous articles on choral music.

He has been awarded the honorary title of Merited Artist of the Estonian SSR (1965) and People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR (1969) and the Order of Friendship of Nations (1986).

Arvo Ratassepp’s work has been published in the compendium "Choral Songs" (Eesti Raamat, 1986) and the CD "Ajaramaat" (Estonian Female Song Society, 2019).

In 1996, the board of the Estonian Female Song Society established the Arvo Ratassepp Memorial Award. This traveling award is given out twice in five years for outstanding performance in choral conducting or teaching choral conductors.

© EMIK 2022

The texts on the EMIC's homepage are protected by the copyright law. They can be used for non-commercial purposes referring to the author (when specified) and source (Estonian Music Information Centre).