Verner Nerep
October 25, 1895 Sargvere parish – August 25, 1959 StockholmBuried at Stockholm Skogskyrkogården
Verner Nerep was a conductor and composer. He received his education at the Nikolai Gymnasium in Tallinn. The first piano lessons was given by his father, after which he developed his pianistic abilities to such an extent that he started astudying in Artur Lemba's piano class at the Tallinn Conservatory. In addition, he studied there also in composition class of Artur Kapi, which he graduated in 1927. From 1933 to 1937, he improved his education on study tours in Western Europe, including Salzburg (conducting courses), Vienna, Venice, Florence, Naples, Rome, Zurich, Berlin (at the orchestra conducting courses of Clemens Krauss and Hans Swarowsky), Amsterdam (with the conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wilhelm Mengelberg) and Paris . As a committed political figure, he became a member of the Estonian Constituent Assembly in 1919.
Verner Nerep became most widely known as a conductor. He was concert master (1923–1936) and conductor (1933–1944, chief conductor 1942–1944) at the Estonia Theatre. He conducted several choirs: the mixed choir of the National Estonian Youth Association (1928–1936), the mixed choir of Tallinn School Youth Music Society (1929–1936) and the mixed choir of the Estonian Music Department (1936–1944). Nerep was the general director of the mixed choirs of the X (1933) and XI (1938) Estonian song celebrations and in the committee for preparing their programs. He also conducted symphony concerts in Estonia Theatre.
Verner Nerep was a board member of the Estonian Academic Society of Musicians and the Estonian Singers' Union (since 1931). In 1939, he was awarded the Order of the Estonian Red Cross, IV class.
Nerep fled to Sweden in 1944, where his main activity remained archival work in music. In 1948, he formed the Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Society, which operated until 1950. He also led the Juhan Aavik mixed choir (1951–1956), was the general director of the Swedish Estonian Song Festival I (1948) and II (1954) and the music director of the Stockholm Estonian Theatre (Estonian Refugee Theatre in Sweden). In his last years, Nerep conducted the Swedish Konsumförbundet orchestra and worked as a piano teacher.
He has composed music for theatre, solo and choral songs and the ballad "Laul orjadele" ("Song to Slaves") for baritone, mixed choir and symphony orchestra (text by Gustav Suits).
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