Lea Leiten

b. April 24, 1966, Jõgeva
Member of the Union of Estonian Professional Musicians since 2002

Lea Leiten is an active pianist both as a chamber musician and accompanist at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Talinn Music High School.

Lea Leiten started piano studies at the Jõgeva Children‘s Music School under the guidance of Gerda Heinmaa. She continued studies at Tallinn Music High School with Toivo Päeske, graduating with gold medal in 1984. In 1989, Leiten graduated from the Tallinn State Conservatoire under the guidance of Kalle Randalu and Peep Lasmann. In addition, she has improved her skills with Roger Vignoles at Summer Course of Savonlinna in 1988, and at Holland Music Session in 2001.

Lea Leiten works as an accompanist at the string department of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre since 1987, and at the Tallinn Music High School since 2005. She has cooperated with numerous distinguished Estonian musicians such as Toomas Vavilov, Urmas Kõiv, Maano Männi, Urmas Vulp, Neeme Punder, Heli Ernits, Meelis Vind, Leho Ugandi, Aare Tammesalu, Anu Komsi (Soome), Arbo Valdma, Külli Tomingas, Lembit Saarsalu ja Villu Veski. A long-time cooperation engages Leiten with flutist Oksana Sinkova. Since 2002, Lea Leiten is a member of the Estonian Association of Estonian Professional Musicians. Until 2006, Leiten was a member of Reval trio. Since 1999, she is the pianist of Reval Ensemble with flutist Neeme Punder and cellist Aare Tammesalu. The ensemble has given recitals in several countries, comprising Brugge Concertgebouw in Belgium, and well-known festivals of contemporary music such as Gaida in Vilnius, Iš Arti in Kaunas, NYYD in Tallinn, and many others. Leiten has been also cooperated with Tallinn String Quartet and Tobias String Quartet, for whom several Estonian composers have written music, among the others Eino Tamberg, Helena Tulve, Tõnu Kõrvits, Toivo Tulev, Mari Vihmand, Märt-Matis Lill, Tõnis Kaumann, Lauri Jõeleht, Patric de Clerk (Netherlands) and Wim Henderickx (Netherlands). Leiten has also recorded new works of Estonian composers for Estonian Public Broadcasting, including music for Lepo Sumera’s author CD “To Reach Yesterday”.

As a pianist, Lea Leiten has been awarded the II Prize and the Critics‘ Prize at the Čiurlionis Contest in Vilnius (1986) and a diploma at Republican Piano Contest (1988). She has been several times honoured as the best concertmaster both at republican and international contests for string and wind players.


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