On February 16 and 17, Estonian National Male Choir with Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the guidance of Risto Joost will give two concerts in Tallinn and Tartu. Concerts are dedicated to the 92th anniversary of the Republic of Lithuania. Ene Salumäe (organ), Virgo Veldi (saxophone), Urmas Põldma (tenor), Ka Bo Chan (counter tenor), Andres Alamaa (bass), Mareks Lobe (baritone), Andrus Kirss (tenor) and Margus Vaht (percussion) will perform as soloists.
Concert program consists of music by Estonian and Lithuanian composers. Music by Arvo Pärt (De profundis, And One of the Pharisees…, Most Holy Mother of God) and Veljo Tormis (Curse Upon Iron, Litany to Thunder, The Bishop and the Pagan) will be performed the first half of the concert. The second half includes works by Pärt (Ein Wallfahrtslied, Da pacem Domine), Toivo Tulev (Cadenza II, I said, Who are You? – He said, You…) and Lithuanian Justė Janulytė and Jouzas Naujalis.
Concerts starting at 7 pm, will take place on February 16 at Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn and February 17 at Tartu Vanemuine Concert Hall.
 Estonian National Male Choir Photo: Kaupo Kikkas |
The Estonian National Male Choir is currently the largest full-time professional male choir in the world. Founded in 1944 by the legendary composer and leader of the Estonian choral movement, Gustav Ernesaks. |
The choir has since been conducted by Olev Oja, Kuno Areng, Ants Üleoja, Ants Soots and Kaspars Putninsh (Latvia). Since 2008, the artistic director is Ants Soots.
Over its 60 years of existence, Estonian National Male Choir has performed more than 6000 concerts all across Estonia, the former Soviet Union, many Western European countries, Israel, Canada and the United States. Besides the a cappella choral music, the repertoire also includes over 30 large-scale vocal music with orchestra. The choir has worked together with such guest conductors like Lev Sivuhhin, Robert Sund, Josep Prats, Roman Toi, Chifuru Matsubara, Kaspars Putninsh, Anatoly Grindenko, Lone Larsen, Timothy Brown, Vytautas Mishkinis, Toomas Siitan, Jaan-Eik Tulve, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, Eri Klas, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Riccardo Muti, Paavo Berglund, Leif Segerstam, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Saulius Sondeckis, Leo Krämer, Christoph Spering, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Arvo Volmer, Andres Mustonen, Paul Mägi, Jüri Alperten, Vello Pähn, Tõnu Kaljuste, Nikolai Aleksejev and many others.
Over the last 5 years, Estonian National Male Choir has recorded 12 CD-s for Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Virgin, Finlandia, CCn’C, Forte, Alba and other record labels. In 2004, Estonian National Male Choir together with girls’ choir Ellerhein and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi, won a Grammy Award in the category of „Best Choral Performance” for their recording of Sibelius’s Cantatas (Virgin Classics, 2003). A year later their recording of Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” (recorded by the same line-up) was voted the orchestral album of the year in BBC Music Magazine.
|
One of the finest and most internationally acclaimed Lithuanian orchestras, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra (LCO), was founded in 1960 by Prof Saulius Sondeckis who held the post of artistic director and chief conductor from 1960–2004. |
 Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra |
During the half-century, the orchestra has toured almost every European country, North and South America, Japan, Egypt, and the Republic of South Africa. LCO has performed at the Berlin Philharmonic, Musikverein in Vienna, Royal Festival in London, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Pleyel Hall in Paris, Gewandhaus in Leipzig and at many other famous concert halls in Europe. They have repeatedly appeared with Mstislav Rostropovitch, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, Tatyana Grindenko, Igor Oistrakh, Yevgeny Kissin, David Geringas and Yehudi Menuhin, among many others.
The orchestra appears on more than 100 recordings of diverse repertoire, with a special affinity for the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. LCO has also given a number of world premieres of works by many celebrated composers, including Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Pēteris Vasks, who have dedicated their works to the orchestra. Since 2008, the artistic director and chief conductor of the orchestra is Sergei Krylov.
Agnes Toomla