Jüri Mandre

Jüri Mandre
January 28, 1907 Tartu – November 28, 1970 Baltimore

Jüri Mandre (Gerhard Evald Mann until 1938) was a composer and organist. He graduated from Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in 1925, studied agriculture at the University of Tartu from 1925–1931 and from 1938. Worked at the Vanemuine Theatre as a repetiteur, and was also active as a composer. He acquired his musical education by studying the piano privately.

Mandre fled to Germany in 1944, where he continued his musical activities in the Augsburg Haunstetten refugee camp. He composed songs and music for several plays. In 1950–1951, he worked as a music teacher in a local Estonian school.

Jüri Mandre emigrated to the US in 1951, where he worked as the organist of the St. Mark Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Baltimore until the end of his life. He was a founding member of Baltimore Estonian Men’s Choir (Baltimore’i Eesti Laulumehed). Mandre composed mainly solo and choral works, music for plays and films.

His music for the play "Nipernaadi teelahkmel" (1969) to the lyrics of Ilmar Mikiver, which was staged many times in the USA and Canada, received a lot of attention. The Mandre-Sööt Music Memorial Fund (Jüri Mandre Muusikafond) was founded in 1971 to collect, publish and promote his music.

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