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Estonian conductor (born )

Tõnu Kaljuste (born August 28, ) is an Estonianconductor.

Born in Tallinn, Kaljuste is the son of Heino Kaljuste (–), an Estonian choral conductor, and Lia Kaljuste, a radio journalist. Tõnu sang in his father's choirs as a child and graduated from the Tallinn Music High School (Tallinna Muusikakeskkool) in He completed a graduate degree at the Tallinn Conservatory in , studying with Jüri Variste and Roman Matsov, and continued as a postgraduate at the Leningrad Conservatory until

Kaljuste took his father's role as leader of the Ellerhein Chamber choir in , an ensemble that performed choral works ranging from Renaissance music to contemporary avant-garde music. He was professor of choral conducting at the Tallinn Conservatory from to and won the Best Conductor prize at the Béla Bartók International Choral Competition. With financial support from the Estonian government, Kaljuste turned the Ellerhein Chamber Choir into a full-time ensemble and renamed it the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in Kaljuste also conducted with the Estonian National Opera between and

In October , Kaljuste was a signatory of the Letter of 40 Intellectuals, a public letter in which forty prominent Estonian intellectuals defended the Estonian language and protested the Russification policies of the Kremlin in Estonia. The signatories also expressed their unease against Republic-level government in harshly dealing with youth protests in Tallinn that were sparked a week earlier due to the banning of a public performance of the punk rock band Propeller.

After Estonia won independence in , many of the barriers to international performing and recording were lifted, and Kaljuste became well known for his recordings on ECM Records of the works of Estonian composers such as Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Heino Eller, and Arvo Pärt. In , he formed the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; he was also principal conductor of

DH: Welcome Tõnu! It’s great to be with you, speaking about the choral tradition in your native Estonia. What can you tell us about your earliest musical memories? Was your family musical?

TK: In my childhood, my father Heino Kaljuste was involved with the Ellerhein Children’s Choir in Tallinn. As well as conducting the children’s choir, he was a music educator who aimed to teach children to read music notes just as they read their native language from books. This was influenced by Zoltán Kodály. He introduced the Kodály method to Estonia and authored all the school music textbooks.

I began my musical studies as a pianist and also sang in my father’s children’s choir. I think that’s probably where my emotional connection to music comes from – from an early age, I observed how music was interpreted.

My mother worked at Estonian Radio and was not professionally involved in music. My sister pursued visual arts and became a book designer. She has also designed the visuals for several of my music releases.

DH: That’s really interesting about the focus on Kodály in your early musical development. The singing tradition itself in Estonia is world-famous: can you tell us why?

TK: Estonians began their choral singing tradition in , following the example of the German culture. It was tied to the period of national awakening – the birth of self-awareness. During that time, many European nations sought to define themselves as cultural entities. Estonia began this within the framework of the Russian Empire which ultimately led to the establishment of its own state in Sufficiently strong cultural groundwork had been laid by then. Song festivals, heavily influenced by German culture, attracted large crowds.

Estonia’s older folk tradition, the runic song, has an even deeper origin. The revival of runic songs inspired Estonia’s second period of national awakening, which occurred upon gaining independence from the Soviet Union. Whi