Liisi Toomsalu
Liisi Toomsalu is a choir conductor, violin teacher and composer living in Viljandi County.She graduated from Viljandi Music School in violin performance in 1998, Kalmetu Primary School in 1999, and Viljandi Land Gymnasium (Maagümnaasium) cum laude in 2002. In 2008, Toomsalu graduated from the Heino Eller Tartu Music College majoring in violin, and obtained a master's degree in music teaching from the University of Tartu Teachers' Seminary.
Since the autumn of 2008, Liisi Toomsalu has been a violin teacher at the Viljandi Music School, the conductor of the Viljandi male choir Sakala and the tutor of the male choir's double quartet Topelt Hellad Kellad. In the years 2011–2018, she was the conductor of the Kolga-Jaani mixed choir Jaaniko, and since the fall of 2019, the conductor of the Jaaniko women's ensemble. She is also the conductor of the mixed choir Üits Viis (since 2015) and a teacher of choral conducting at the Viljandi Academy of Culture of the University of Tartu (since 2020).
Liisi Toomsalu’s interest in composition began with the arrangements for the double quartet of the Sakala male choir. The main part of his creations are arrangements for male and female ensembles, male choir and mixed choir. Liisi Toomsalu claims that the goal of her arrangements is to keep the repertoire of her groups as modern, fresh, varied and appealing as possible and to touch both the singer and the listener.
Composing of original works began in 2020, when the mixed choir song "Mes om kodu" to the words of Kristi Ilves won the main prize and the audience award at the competition of new songs in Mulgi dialect.
In 2022, Liisi Toomsalu sent three choral pieces to the words of Kristi Ilves to the same competition: "Siikõrd tule keväd tõisiti" for a mixed choir, "Mine mõtsa" for a male choir and "Tule miuge, memm" for a children's or toddlers’ choir. The first of them won the title of the audience’s favorite.
Liisi Toomsalu’s music has been aknowledged as "she knows who she is writing for".
Toomsalu admits that indeed – when she composes, she has a specific collective in mind. There is not enough new music or arrangements that would match the capabilities of small choirs in rural areas of Estonia. Based on this, in her work, capability comes first, but no less important – a melodic narrative. She adds that she allows these "stories" to be born freely and grow. Their sounds are born in the deepest corners of the soul, and there is nothing more important than realize that it touches the singer and the listener.
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