A Celebration of the Centenary of the Republic of Estonia with Europe´s biggest choral festival

Centenary of the Republic of Estonia
Europa Cantat

Saturday 28 July will see the start of Europe´s biggest choral festival Europa Cantat 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia. The opening concert at Liberty Square in Tallinn´s centre features The Swingles from the United Kingdom. It is the first time for Estonia to host the event which is drawing more than 4,500 singing fans and choral music experts from 50 countries to the country´s capital.

„We were particularly pleased that it is the Centenary year when we have invited more than 4,000 choral singers to Estonia,“ said Maarja-Liisa Soe, Head of the Estonia 100 Programme of the Government Office. „The singers are not coming here empty-handed. They bring along a unique musical gift – the “Happy Birthday, Estonia!” concert which is held at
the spectacular Song Celebration Ground, on 3 August. The fascinating programme of the festival features mores than a hundred concerts and twelve premieres,“ added Soe.

Kaie Tanner, General Manager of the festival team says that their broad aim is to reconfirm Estonia´s pre-eminent position on the map of the world´s choral music. „Tallinn will host international promoters and concert organizers, and we can show them the outstanding work of our conductors, choirs and composers, and present the opportunities that we have for recording and for organizing choir camps and concerts,“ she added.

Europa Cantat is held from 27 July to 5 August and its motto this year is ‘A Million Ways to Sing’. The programme includes concerts and appearances by the jazz choir Vocal Line (Denmark), the Inner Mongolia Youth Choir, the Hong Kong Children’s Choir and many others. There are also concerts by the cream of Estonian groups – Estonian Voices, the
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Estonian National Male Choir and Vox Clamantis.

The motto ‘A Million Ways to Sing’ is connected with one of the festival´s main themes – new ways for musical expression and their links to other arts, and attracting bigger audiences. The diverse and large-scale festival is meant to be educational and to avoid inter-choir competition. The programme features workshops, over a hundred concerts at concert halls, open-air stages, city squares and courtyards, premieres, a conductors and composers programme, a training course for young event managers, Musix Expo, meetings of international music organizations and the presentation of the European Award for Choral Composers.

Festival highlights:

28 July at 20 Europa Cantat 2018 Opening concert at Liberty Square in
Tallinn, free admission
29 July at 20 concert „Estonian Atmospheres“ at Alexela Concert
Hall
30 July at 19.30 The Choirs´ Night in the courtyards of Tallinn´s Old Town, free admission
31 July at 22 Concert of The Swingles at Alexela Concert Hall
1 August at 20 Promenade Concert at the Culture Cauldron
3 August at 19 “Happy Birthday, Estonia!” concert at the Song Celebration Ground, free admission
4 August at 20 Arvo Pärt´s „Te Deum“ at Charles´ Church by a 300-strong choir and the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the Grammy-award winning conductor Tõnu Kaljuste
The programme includes twelve premieres of which two are from
Estonian composers – Galina Grigorjeva´s „Alliluja“ for mixed choirs and Tõnu Kõrvits´ „Windy Nights“ for girls´ choirs.

Festival programme: https://ectallinn2018.ee/programme/concert-program/
Festival video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4VkhPUEP0I
Tickets from Piletilevi: https://www.piletilevi.ee/eng/tickets/festival/muusika/europa-cantat-xx-tallinn-2018-kontserdid-57637/?&design=piletilevi