News

Composer Arvo Pärt and the Arvo Pärt Centre cordially congratulate Tallinn Chamber Orchestra on their 25th anniversary! Since its establishment, TCO has also been one of the leading performers and recorders of Arvo Pärt’s music. One of their first major tasks in 1993, when Tõnu Kaljuste formed the orchestra, was recording Pärt’s Te Deum (ECM) with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

ECM Records will release a new CD, Arvo Pärt: The Symphonies, featuring all four symphonies by Pärt. These orchestral works from the composer’s different creative periods are performed by the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste.

“It was 7 February 1976, a beautiful sunny winter’s day,” Nora Pärt recalls. There was brightness and inspiration in the air and Nora suggested they take a longer walk through the forest in Nõmme. However, Arvo Pärt was not getting up from his dark brown pianino anytime soon… They didn’t make it to the forest that day; however, the piano composition Für Alina was born. With this small piece the composer found his own voice and compositional style, which he named tintinnabuli.

As the highlight of the 800th anniversary celebrations of the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain, an extraordinary concert will be performed today, on 18 February 2018, with the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s new a cappella composition, And I heard a voice… / Ja ma kuulsin hääle… as part of the programme.

On 15 October 2018, the Arvo Pärt Centre will open its doors to the public in its new, unique building. Its architecture is inspired by the composer’s music, more precisely, one of his most important compositions, Tabula rasa. Enrique Sobejano, one of the architects of the Arvo Pärt Centre, introduces the conceptual points of departure for the new Arvo Pärt Centre building.

Arvo Pärt Centre and Arvo and Nora Pärt cordially congratulate Toomas Siitan, the outstanding musicologist and popular professor of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, on his 60th birthday. Toomas Siitan and Arvo Pärt have been friends for over 40 years and share a very special connection, which allows the composer to consider Toomas one of the greatest experts and most profound interpreters of his work.

From 26 to 28 January, the Flagey Concert Hall in Brussels will organise a festival dedicated to Arvo Pärt’s music in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. The composer’s works will be performed at the festival by the representative collectives of Estonia, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, as well as by renowned Belgian musicians: the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and its soloists, the Flemish Radio Choir and the chamber ensemble Revue Blanche.

As the highlight of the 800th anniversary celebrations of the University of Salamanca, the oldest university in Spain, an extraordinary concert will be performed on 18 February 2018, with the world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s new a cappella composition, And I heard a voice… / Ja ma kuulsin hääle… as part of the programme.

The largest classical event database Bachtrack released the charts about 2017 performance statistics and confirmed Arvo Pärt as the most performed living composer in the world for the seventh consecutive year.

International Association of People in Music (Международный союз музыкальных деятелей) celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017. According to Professor Aleksandr Sokolov, President of the Society and Rector of the Moscow Conservatory, the association decided to honour the composer Arvo Pärt for his outstanding contribution to the development of music with the honorary title of  Honored Artist of Music.

Pope Francis presented the Ratzinger Prizes on 18 November at the award ceremony in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. In addition to two outstanding theologians the winners of this year’s Prize also included the composer Arvo Pärt.

The exhibition TABULA – Arvo Pärt Centre by Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano, the architects of the Arvo Pärt Centre, will be opened on 8 December in Berlin’s prestigious Aedes Architekturforum, where it will introduce the architecture and conceptual points of departure for the new Arvo Pärt Centre building. The exhibition will be on view until 16 January 2018.