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Today, 12 September is the important day, when the inaugural ceremony of the new Rector of the EAMT, Prof. Ivari Ilja will take place at 16.00 in the Chamber hall of the EAMT. The medal symbolizing the office of the Rector will be presented to Prof. Ilja by the President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, and the ceremony will be broadcasted live by the Estonian Public Broadcasting Culture portal.

In addition to the President, the members of the EAMT and other invited guests will be addressed by the Minister of Research and Education, Mailis Reps; Minister of Culture, Inderk saar; Representative of the Council of Rectors of Estonian Universities, Prof. Mart Kalm; Vice-Head of the EAMT Student Council, Karl Joosep Sinisalu, and many others.

Musical greetings will be presented by the Choir of the EAMT under the baton of Tõnu Kaljuste, by the internationally acclaimed pianists Mihkel Poll and Stenn Lassmann, and Estonian zither player Anna-Liisa Eller.

Prof. Ivari Ilja studied piano at Tallinn State Conservatoire under Prof. Laine Mets and at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire under Professors Vera Gornostayeva and Sergey Dorensky. He has been a member of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre faculty since 1986 and held the position of Head of the Piano Department from 2000 to 2015. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Association of Professional Musicians and Member of the Board of the Estonian Music Council.

Professor Ivari Ilja elected to be the next rector of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre

Professor Ilja received 30 votes in the 55-strong electoral council in the first round of elections for rector of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre on Wednesday May 3rd.

Candidates for the position were professor Ivari Ilja of the Piano Department, professor Kerri Kotta of the Musicology Department, professor Marje Lohuaru of Instrumental Chamber Music Centre and professor Toomas Vavilov of the Brass and Woodwind Department.

The rector is elected for a term of five years by the electoral council, which comprises the members of the EAMT council, the Board of Governors, professors and lead research fellows whose work load is at least 0.5 and student representatives named by the the student council.

Professor Ivari Ilja has been a member of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre faculty since 1986 and held the position of Head of the Piano Department from 2000 to 2015.

He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Estonian Association of Professional Musicians and Member of the Board of the Estonian Music Council.

Professor Ilja’s term as rector will begin on 1th September 2017.

Ivari Ilja studied the piano at the Tallinn State Conservatoire with Professor Laine Mets and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire with Professor Vera Gornostayeva and Professor Sergey Dorensky.

Ivari Ilja is an internationally recognized pianist, accompanist and ensemble musician. His collaboration with renowned singers Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Irina Arkhipova, Maria Guleghina and Elena Zaremba has been particularly successful and acclaimed. Together they have performed many of the great concert stages of the world, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall of New York, The Kennedy Center of Washington, Davies Symphony Hall San Francisco, La Scala in Milan, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, the great halls of St. Peterburg Philharmonic and Moscow Conservatory, Staatsoper Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Suntory Hall of Tokyo, Musikverein of Vienna and Mozarteum of Salzburg.

Ivari Ilja has also held solo recitals in France, United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Sweden, Finland and performed as a soloist with several symphony orchestras such as Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra etc.

His repertoire mostly consists of romantic music, primarily of the works by Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, but also Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten and others.

Since 2003, he has repeatedly toured with great Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky in USA, Europe, Hong-Kong, Japan and elsewhere.

Estonian composer Veljo Tormis died at the age of 86 on Saturday, 21 January 2017.

Born in Aru village, Kuusalu Parish, Harju County, Tormis had a profound experience with choral music starting at an early age.

When he was seven, his family moved to Kivi-Vigala village, where his father worked as a sacristan – his father was teaching music and worked as an organist at a local church. The family home also had an organ that provided Tormis with his first playing experience.

Tormis began his formal musical education in 1943 at the Tallinn Music School. In 1949, he entered the Tallinn Conservatory and continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory (1951–1956). Soon after, he acquired a teaching position at the Tallinn Music School (1955–60), where Arvo Pärt was among his students. He held another teaching position at the Tallinn Music High School (1962–66), but by 1969 was supporting himself exclusively as a freelance composer.

The winner of the European Composer Award 2016 is Estonian composer Liisa Hirsch! Her piece “Mechanics of Flying” was performed at Young Euro Classic festival on 31 August in Berlin Konzerthaus by the Symphony Orchestra of the EAMT under the baton of Paul Mägi. The award, determined by an 11-member audience jury, is given in recognition of the festival’s best world premiere.

Liisa Hirsch (1984) studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre under Toivo Tulev obtaining her BA degree in 2009. She further improved her skills in piano under Ivari Ilja, electronic music under Margo Kõlar and improvisation under Anto Pett. Liisa is currently taking her MA degree in composition at the The Royal Conservatory of The Hague under Peter Adriaansz and Cornelis de Bondt.

The Symphony Orchestra of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre is performing tonight in Berlin Konzerthaus at the renowned music festival Young Euro Classic 2016.

Under the baton of Paul Mägi with pianist Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann as soloist the programme features “Lamentate” (2002) by Arvo Pärt, Symphony No 2 in B-Minor “The Legendary” (1937) by Eduard Tubin and a world premiere of “Mechanics of Flying” by Liisa Hirsch. The concert starts at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. in Estonia) and is live streamed by ARTE.