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Doctoral students of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Maila Laidna and Tiiu Sisask won a gold medal at the 3rd WPTA FINLAND International Piano Competition of the World Piano Teachers’ Association in Finland. There were participants from 40 countries. The instructor of the piano duo is Mati Mikalai, senior lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

You can read more about the competition and the results here: http://www.wpta.info/finland/ipc/

Piano duo Maila Laidna – Tiiu Sisask
The piano duo was formed in 2013 and both members of the duo are currently studying for a doctorate at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and complementing their studies at the Graz University of the Arts in Austria. The duo has participated in masterclasses given by Arvo Pärt, Maja Nosowska, Elena Semishina, Gil Garburg and PetRo Duo and performed in various concert series in Tallinn. In November 2015, the piano duo was awarded 3rd place at the XXV Rome International Piano Competition, and in April 2016, the piano reached the finals at the Suzana Szörenyi Competition in Romania. In 2019, the duo won the first prize in the piano duo category at the Maria Yudina competition in St. Petersburg. In the same year, the duo received the second prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Filadelfia. The Estonian premiere of Urmas Sisask’s work “Sombrero” at the Tõravere Observatory in 2016 was performed by Maila Laidna and Tiiu Sisask.

On August 21, an international voice-themed webinar PEVoC14 will take place in cooperation with the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and East-Tallinn Central Hospital.

Participation is free, but pre-registration is required.

Take a look at the preliminary programme here and register for the PEVoC14 Tutorial Webinar here.

The joint “Celebration Concert” of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Baku Academy of Music will take place on June 22 at 11.00 (Estonian time), marking the 100th birthday of the Baku Academy of Music. The first part of the concert will take place in the great hall of the EAMT Concert and Theatre Hall and the second in the Baku Academy of Music. Students from both universities will perform works by Tubin, Liszt, Francaix, Hajibeyli, Chopin, Beethoven, Amirov and others.
The rectors of both academies will give a welcome speech.

The concert can be watched via webcast.
See more: emtasaalid.ee/uritused/bakuu-muusikaakadeemia-100

The first contact between the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and the U. Hajubeyl Baku Academy of Music took place in 2018 when EAMT representatives Innar Järva, Paolo Girol and vice rector Henry-David Varema participated in the European Union Eastern Partnership EaP Connect project meeting at the Baku Academy of Music and a conference at the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences. In April 2019 Innar Järva and Tammo Sumera visited the Baku Academy of Music to prepare for the use of the low latency audio-visual streaming system LoLa. On 16 May 2019 the first joint concert took place in the EAMT Chamber Hall within the series of events “Cooperation Spirit”. On 20 December 2019, the joint concert “Connecting Traditions” took place simultaneously in Tallinn and Baku using LoLa technology, with the support from EaPConnect Enlighten Your Research 2018 for the project “MIRCO: Music Instruments Renewal via Contemporary Creation”

The Erasmus + global mobility program cooperation agreement has been signed with the Baku Academy of Music for the years 2019–2023. The first three students from the Baku Academy of Music are coming to study at the EAMT from the next academic year, and several faculty exchanges in both directions are also planned.

On June 14, the Senate of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre confirmed the 2021 elections results for academic staff and administrative positions.

Four academic positions were filled via an international recruitment procedure:

• Professor of orchestral conducting (workload 0,5)
  14 applications were received. The Senate elected Arvo Volmer.
• Senior Lecturer for accompaniment and opera studies (workload 1,0)
  6 applications were received. The Senate elected Ave Wagner.
• Senior Lecturer for oboe (workload 0,5)
  5 applications were received. The Senate elected Dmitry Bulgakov.
• Lecturer for piano and chamber music (workload 1,0)
  15 applications were received. The Senate elected Maksim Štšura.

EAMT internal recruitment took place for the following administrative positions:

• Chief Coordinator of the Department of Classical Music Performance.
  One application was received for the position and the Senate confirmed the election of Mihkel Poll.
• Chief Coordinator of the Department of Composition and Improvisational Performing Arts. Two applications were received for the position. The Senate elected Paolo Girol.
• Head of the Centre for Doctoral Studies.
  One application was received for the position and the Senate confirmed the election of Kristel Pappel.

On Friday, June 18 at 7 pm, the gala concert of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre graduates of 2021 will take place at the EAMT Great Hall. Watch live on Youtube!

On Saturday, June 19 at 4 pm, the EAMT symphony orchestra and soloists will perform at the Great Hall, and at 6 pm the diploma awarding ceremony will commence. Watch live on Youtube or outside in front of the study building on a big screen.

76 bachelor’s, 85 master’s and one doctoral diploma will be awarded at the ceremony.

Practical information:

• Admission by invitation only. The number of guests will depend on current restrictions.
• All events can be followed via webcast.
• A photoshoot and congratulation of the graduates are planned to take place similarly to last year after the ceremony outside the study building.

Teele Siig (Cultural Management) will defend her master’s thesis “Making Sense of the 2019 Change in Administration of Estonian Museums” on June 10 at 10.00.

The defense of the master’s thesis takes place in Zoom. A limited number of guests can participate. Please let us know by sending an e-mail to anna.ranczakowska@eamt.ee.

Dear international applicants! Today, 3 June, is the last day to complete your application with supporting documentation.

For detailed audition requirements and assessment criteria click on the departments and majors.

Applicants to whom traveling restrictions still apply must include a video recording. Applicants with no traveling restrictions are expected to participate in the live entrance auditions that will take place from 28th of June to 1st of July at EAMT.
For further questions please address vastuvott@eamt.ee

Kirke Karja, doctoral student in jazz music at the EAMT is the first woman to win the Gaslini Award as the best jazz talent of the future.

Kirke Karja is an exceptional jazz musician and composer very well known despite her very young age, known for having played with many important musicians and also as president of the Estonian Jazz Association. She graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with a degree in classical piano and a master’s degree in jazz. She also studied freelance composition and improvisation and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, working as a freelance musician. In 2014 she received the Young Jazz Talent Award. In 2019 she was selected to participate in the Criss Cross European tour.

Kirke will perform on the evening of 29 July 2021 in Piazza La Quara with Federico Calcagno.

See also: https://www.premiogaslini.it/2021/05/22/la-pianista-estone-kirke-karja-vince-il-premio-gaslini-2021/

GIOVANNI ALBINI will defend his doctoral thesis on June 14 at 12.00 in room A-402 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music):

Transfiguring Conventional Music Elements
A Mathematically Informed Approach to Composition

Supervisor: Professor Kerri Kotta, PhD (EAMT)

Opponent: Hannu Pohjannoro, DMus (Tampere)

The doctoral thesis is available HERE and in print in the EAMT library

“… The general questions that had been the starting point of my artistic research are the following. How can mathematics serve to shape musical structures that grant a neat focus on traditional music elements and yet put them in a different perspective? And which of the several ways I could find are closer to my individual character, aesthetics and aims?

To answer these broad questions I took into analysis from a musicological standpoint the process of my former composition practice, recognizing some mathematically informed traits that I could thenreduce and formalize in three concepts of a specific structured compositional strategy of combinatorial nature, that I named 1) completeness, 2) exhaustiveness and 3) equality in repetition.

These three concepts naturally emerged in my own composition practice. Thereby, such study let me narrow down the aforesaid questions to a more specific one: the very research question of this text. How and why the three concepts of completeness, exhaustiveness and equality in repetition can serve to transfigure conventional musical elements offering useful tools for composers?” writes Giovanni Albini in the abstract of  his doctoral thesis.

See more here.

On May 12, 2021, the Lied-duo competition of the Department of Classical Music Performance took place in the Chamber Hall of the EAMT, where 16 ensembles participated.
The jury, Mihkel Poll, Aule Urb and Kristi Kapten, judged the following duos worthy of the award:

I prize Ursula Roomere / Sven-Sander Šestakov (supervisor Martti Raide); cash prize 350 euros

II prize Milda Drejeryté / Medeiné Mickevičiuté (supervisor Prof. Helin Kapten) and Triin-Eliis Süld / Eva Jelenskaja-Tamm (supervisor Prof. Helin Kapten); a cash prize of 250 euros for each duo

III prize Lekso Kapanadze / Karl Johan Nutt (supervisor Prof. Helin Kapten); cash prize 150 euros

Congratulations to the winners!