Mai Simson
b. January 16, 1992Choirmaster and conductor Mai Simson has graduated from the Univerisity of Tartu in mathematics and the Tartu Heino Eller Music School in choral conducting with Karin Herne in 2013. In 2017, she received her Master’s degree cum laude from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in conducting class of Prof. Tõnu Kaljuste. Currently, she is continuing her doctoral studies at the EAMT. Mai Simson has been awarded the Gustav Ernesaks scholarship (2017) and the Tõnu Kaljuste scholarship (2019). In 2014, she reached the finals of the XI Estonian National Competition for Young Choir Conductors.
At present, Mai Simson works at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, conducts the Estonian Public Broadcasting Mixed Choir, and is engaged as choirmaster of the chamber choir Voces Tallinn. She has also conducted the Engineers Male Choir, the chamber female choir Miina, the Estonian Youth Mixed Choir, the girls’ choir of the Jõgeva Gymnasium, the Mixed Choir of the European Capital of Culture, the mixed choir of the EAMT to name a few. As a choirmaster or conductor, she has also been involved in several different projects with the Estonian National Male Choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the chamber choir Voces Tallinn and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
In 2017, Mai Simson made her debut as the conductor of the girls’ choirs at the 12th Estonian youth song festival. In 2019, she stood in front of children’s choirs and she will also conduct children’s choirs at the upcoming youth song festival in 2022.
As a choirmaster, she has prepared the choirs for performances of masterworks such as Mass in B minor, Mass in A, BWV 234 and Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach, Jephta and Messiah by Georg Friedrich Händel, All-Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninov, Requiem by Tigran Mansurian, Mass in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven, Vesperae solennes de confessore by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Le Roi David by Arthur Honegger, Missa papae Marcelli by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Magnificat by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Oratorio de Noël by Camille Saint-Saëns and Lauda per la nativita del Signore by Ottorino Respighi; among Estonian composers Rudolf Tobias’s Jonah and Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum and Adam’s Lament. She was also an editor of the original score and piano reduction of Tobias’s oratorio Jonah version in the Estonian language and original orchestration in Estonia.
Mai Simson is the board member of the Estonian Mixed Choirs Association (since 2015), the Association of Estonian Choral Conductors (since 2017), and the Estonian Choral Association (since 2019).
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