News

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.

The Estonian cellist Toomas Velmet recently celebrated his 75th birthday. On that occasion, the ERP record company released Velmet’s record Contra aut pro?. Released as an LP, the collection features eight recordings from 1967 to 1992 stored in the Estonian Radio archives. The LP features Arvo Pärt’s cello concerto Pro et contra (1966) recorded in 1967.

In the second half of 2017, three scientific studies have been published on Arvo Pärt’s work and its reception: Arvo Pärt’s White Light, a collection of articles edited by Laura Dolp, Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, a monograph by Kevin Karnes, and Arvo Pärt’s Resonant Texts, a monograph by Andrew Shenton. All three books were published by the prestigious publishing houses of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

Construction works on the new building at the Arvo Pärt Centre have reached an important milestone: most of the building is now covered with a roof, and so reaches the maximum height of 10.55 metres. In celebration of this event, the Arvo Pärt Centre held a topping-out party to thank and treat the builders and the main contractor of the construction works, AS Ehitustrust.

From 20 October until 18 November, the Music Department gallery in the Tartu Public Library will host an exhibition of photographs by Tõnu Tormis, “On Pärt”. Displaying this exhibition from 2005 is possible thanks to collaboration between Tartu Public Library, Tõnu Tormis and the Arvo Pärt Centre Another display on the composer, “Enchanted By the Work of Arvo Pärt”, will be open outside the Music Department on the 4th floor.