THE ESTONIAN PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER CHOIR (EPCC)
 is one of the best-known Estonian music ensembles in the world. The EPCC was founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, who was the artistic director and chief conductor for twenty years. In the years 2001–2007, the English musician Paul Hillier took over and between the years 2008–2013 the artistic director and chief conductor was Daniel Reuss. Since 2014 Kaspars Putniņš has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the choir.
The repertoire of the choir extends from Gregorian chant and baroque to the music of the 21st century, with a special focus on the work of Estonian composers, such as Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Galina Grigoryeva, Toivo Tulev, Tõnu Kõrvits, Helena Tulve, and introducing their output to the world. Each season the choir gives about 60–70 concerts both in Estonia and abroad.
The EPCC has cooperated with a number of outstanding conductors including Claudio Abbado, Helmuth Rilling, Eric Ericson, Ward Swingle, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Nikolai Alekseyev, Olari Elts, Gregory Rose, Andrew Lawrence-King, Roland Böer, Frieder Bernius, Stephen Layton, Marc Minkowski, Christoph Poppen, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Riesman, Louis Langree, Paul McCreesh, Gottfried von der Goltz, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Anu Tali, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Peter Phillips, Gustavo Dudamel etc.
The EPCC has also worked with the following world-class orchestras such as the Norwegian, Australian, Lithuanian, Prague and Stuttgardt Chamber Orchestras, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Berlin Rundfunk Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Palatino, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata, Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, the Philip Glass Ensemble, the North Netherland Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
The EPCC has been a welcome guest at numerous music festivals and outstanding venues all over the world including the BBC Proms, the Mozartwoche, the Abu Gosh Music Festival, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Moscow Easter Festival, the Musikfest Bremen, the Salzburg Festspiele, Mozartwoche, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Festival Aix-en-Provence, the International Cervantino Festival, the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, the Bergen International Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Sydney Opera House, Wiener Konzerthaus, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Versailles Opéra Royal, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, LSO St Luke’s and Barbina Centre in London, the Esplanade in Singapore, the Flagey in Brussels, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the Lincoln Centre and Carnegie Hall in New York, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles etc.
Another important aspect in the choir’s life is recording music (for ECM, Virgin Classics, Carus, Harmonia Mundi and Ondine), resulting in various award-winning CDs. The EPCC recordings have twice won a Grammy-Award for Best Choral Performance: in 2007 for the album of Arvo Pärt’s Da Pacem (Harmonia Mundi) with conductor Paul Hillier and Arvo Pärt’s Adam’s Lament (ECM) with conductor Tõnu Kaljuste. All in all, the choir has 15 Grammy nominations with works by Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür and the music from the Nordic countries. In 2018 the recording „Schnittke – Psalms of Repentance. Pärt – Magnificat & Nunc dimittis” (BIS), conducted by Kaspars Putniņš, won Gramophone Award. The EPCC recordings have also won the award Diapason d’Or, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Danish Music Award, de Choc de l’Année Classica 2014, and more.

 

 

TALLINN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (TCO)
was founded in 1993 by conductor Tõnu Kaljuste. In two decades it has become one of Estonia’s signature orchestras and a welcome guest performer on numerous stages in Europe and all over the world. TCO has gained regard for its artistically integral programmes, style-sensitive play and mastery of interpretation, TCO’s musicians are highly rated string players, who also regularly perform as soloists and chamber musicians.

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra has a long-standing cooperation with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir – joint performances and recordings have gained international fame and recognition for both parties. In 1993, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste they recorded Arvo Pärt’s “Te Deum” for the ECM record company. The record earned high ratings from the world’s leading music critics and remained for months in the top ten of record sales.

Tõnu Kaljuste was the orchestra’s chief conductor in 1993-1995 and 1996-2001. Juha Kangas 1995-1996 and artistic director in 2001-2003. The following decade was curated by Tallinn Philharmonic Society’s artistic director Eri Klas. Since autumn 2013 the chief conductor of TCO is Risto Joost.

John Storgårds, Pietari Inkinen, Jaakko Kuusisto, Richard Tognetti, Terje Tonnesen, Alexander Rudin, Florian Donderer, Dmitri Sitkovetski; also highly rated Estonian conductors like Olari Elts, Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi and many others have conducted the orchestra as guest conductors.

TCO has performed in many music festivals - “MITO SettembreMusica” (Milan/Turin, 2004, 2017), the Budapest Autumn Festival (2005), Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli festival (Italy, 2007), Festival Cervantino (Mexico, 2012), Vale of Glamorgan Festival (Wales, 2015), MDR Musiksommer (Germany 2017) etc. Concert tours have taken the orchestra to the USA, Canada, Japan, China, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Tunis, and most European countries.

In 2013 Tallinn Chamber Orchestra received the Estonia Music Council’s Prize for Interpretation.

TCO is one of performers on Arvo Pärt’s record “Adam’s Lament”, which won a Grammy in 2014.

 

RISTO JOOST – Principal Conductor, Artistic Director of Tallinn Philharmonic SocietyPrizewinner of the Malko Conducting Competition 2015 and Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2012, Risto Joost has gained widespread recognition for his work both in the opera pit and on concert stage. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to the most challenging works of contemporary composers. Since 2009 Joost is Principal Conductor of the Estonian National Opera, Chief Conductor of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra from 2013, Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir from 2015/16 and from spring 2016 Artistic Director of Tallinn Philharmonic Society and Birgitta Festival.

Within short time Risto Joost has conducted many internationally acclaimed orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, MDR Leipzig Symphony, Philharmonie der Nationen, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony, NorrlandsOperan Orchestra, Mariinski Theatre Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra,  Latvian National Symphony Orchestra,  Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra,  Belgian Baroque Orchestra B'Rock etc. He has also been working a number of esteemed vocal ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor, Rundfunkchor Berlin, SWR Vokalensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Ars Nova Copenhagen and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

Highlights for the season 2015/16 are his debuts with the Netherlands Philharmonic at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, L´Orchestre National d’ile de France with an Anouar Brahem portrait at the Festival d’ile de France in Paris, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra/SWR Vokalensemble, Turku Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic Teatro La Fenice (coproduction with Estonian National Opera) and various projects with the MDR Leipzig Symphony and Choir.

His operatic repertoire includes L’elisir d’amore, La Traviata, La Bohème, Tosca, Carmen, Gounod’s Faust, Capuleti e iMontecchi, Wallenberg by Erkki-Sven Tüür and ballets as Swan Lake, Nutcracker,  Manon, Modigliani - The Cursed Artist and others.

Risto Joost is one of the founders of Kamber, an Estonian artistic company which is focused on modern music theatre performance. He is also a co-founder of Baltic Studio Lirico, an international training programme for  young opera singers.

His discography includes recordings by Haydn with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Peeter Vähi with the Latvian National Symphony, Arvo Pärt with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir, various recordings of Estonian music with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

In 2011, Risto Joost was awarded the Young Cultural Figure Award of the Estonian Republic.

Risto Joost has studied orchestral and choral conducting as well as singing at the Estonian Academy of Music and received further training at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2008, Risto Joost graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with a Masters Degree, majoring in orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula.