On November 19 and 21, Mixed Choir Noorus will celebrate its 50th anniversary with two concerts Let Me Love You Today in Pärnu and Tallinn. The first half of the program of the jubilee concerts consists love songs by composers from different eras (Ester Mägi, John Dowland, Claudio Monteverdi, Carl Orff, Eric Whitacre), Mixed Choir Noorus will be conducted by Raul Talmar and Jana Perens. During the second half, audience will hear with Risto Joost conducting Eino Tamberg’s oratorio Amores, Op. 65 (1981) which will be performed by mixed choirs Noorus, Teine Noorus, Cantus, Pärnu City Orchestra and Estonian National Opera soloists Angelika Mikk (soprano), Helen Lokuta (mezzo soprano), Oliver Kuusik (tenor) and Rauno Elp (baritone).
Concerts will take place on November 19 at 7 pm at Pärnu Concert Hall and November 21 at 6 pm at Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn.
Mixed Choir Noorus (in English Youth) was founded in 1959, the first conductor was August Lüüs. In 1976, mixed choir Kevade of the Tallinn 22 Secondary School was joined with Noorus and Ene Üleoja started to work as the chief conductor of the new choir. Since 1991, Raul Talmar has acted as the chief conductor of the mixed choir.
Noorus have participated in many festivals and has won several prizes at different choral competitions both in Estonia and abroad (Yugoslavia, Belgium, Hungary, The Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, Greece and elswhere). Large-scale choral works with orchestra (such as Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum and Messe de minuit, Georg Friedrich Händel’s Messiah, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, Tamberg’s Amores, Urmas Sisask’s masses and many others) and arrangements of pop music songs form an important part of choir’s repertoire. Also many Estonian composers (Alo Mattiisen, Mart Siimer, Urmas Sisask) have specially written choral music for the choir. Mixed Choir Noorus has released several CD-s.
Agnes Toomla