Arvo Pärt’s jubilee year opening concerts feature the first performance of Silouan’s Song arranged for voice

This year, on 11 September, Arvo Pärt, one of the most performed living composers in the world, will celebrate his 90th birthday. Celebrations will take place globally, from the USA to Germany and Great Britain. The Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa will mark the jubilee year with concerts, a new permanent exhibition, multiple publications and film screenings.

The jubilee events begin in January and will continue until the spring of 2026.

“The celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday at the Arvo Pärt Centre will begin symbolically on 12 January with the premiere of a new arrangement of Silouan’s Song, performed by a group close to Arvo Pärt, the ensemble Vox Clamantis”, said Anu Kivilo, Managing Director of the Arvo Pärt Centre.

Although Silouan’s Song was first presented as an instrumental work, Pärt has always envisaged it as a vocal piece, too. In interviews from the Centre’s archives, Pärt explains that the sincere and poetic text was set to music in such a way that it could also be sung. As a gift to the composer, Vox Clamantis and the Arvo Pärt Centre will revive this idea. The concert starts at 18:00 on 12 January and will be broadcast live by Klassikaraadio.

“We are particularly pleased that the jubilee year will bring many meaningful international collaborations, with partners including Carnegie Hall in New York, Flagey Concert Hall in Brussels, Prince Pierre Foundation of Monaco, Dresden State Art Collections, and the UK’s BBC3 radio”, added Anu Kivilo.

The Arvo Pärt Centre’s jubilee year programme continues on 18 January with a performance by the renowned Dutch vocal ensemble Kwintessens, which will mark the beginning of an “Arvo Pärt Year” series of concerts and events in Dutch churches and concert halls.

In early February, the Arvo Pärt Centre will open a new permanent exhibition titled Tintinnabuli: A World on Music Paper. Designed to be like an interactive book, the exhibition will take visitors on a voyage of sound through Arvo Pärt’s creative journey and distinctive style, accompanied by animated music scores, videos, photographs and scores.

This year’s Pärnu Music Festival, which will be held in July, is also dedicated to Arvo Pärt and will feature two performances by the Järvi Academy Sinfonietta on 15 July in Laulasmaa.

On 2–11 September, the traditional Pärt Days will take place at the Nargen Festival, with Tõnu Kaljuste as the artistic director.

On 17–18 October, the Arvo Pärt Centre hosts the international academic conference Arvo Pärt. Ideascapes, which will bring renowned Pärt scholars from around the world to Laulasmaa.

The Centre will also publish two new volumes on Arvo Pärt’s work in the jubilee year. The book With Thanks. Sincerely. With Love. Musical Greetings from Arvo Pärt is dedicated to the composer’s playful short-form works, or musical greetings, and features previously unpublished materials that reveal new aspects of Arvo Pärt’s oeuvre. In the autumn, a collection of conversations, essays and articles gathering both Estonian and international musicians and musicologists comes out, including Enzo Restagno’s interviews with Arvo and Nora Pärt, previously published in the Italian musicologist’s book Arvo Pärt in the Mirror.

Cultural institutions and music ensembles around the world will also be celebrating the Estonian composer’s birthday. As Esper Linnamägi, the director of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, explains, Arvo Pärt’s jubilee year will take the choir to many of the world’s major cultural centres to perform his music:

“Concerts are planned at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Chamber Music Hall at the Berlin Philharmonie, The Barbican Centre in London, Rudolfinum in Prague, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Carnegie Hall in New York. The choir will also perform Pärt’s music at events such as the BBC Proms, Musik Fest Bremen and the Lausitz Festival”, said Esper Linnamägi.

“The EFK’s main partners in performing Pärt’s music this year are the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, and the Academy of Ancient Music from the UK. Under the direction of Tõnu Kaljuste, the concerts will form an artistic whole and tribute to the composer, whose work has transformed contemporary music and touched listeners worldwide”, added Linnamägi.

The joint exhibition Spiegel im Spiegel. Encounters Between Estonian and German Art from Lucas Cranach to Arvo Pärt by the Dresden State Art Collections and the Kumu Art Museum highlights the composer’s artistic sketches and drawings from his musical diaries. The exhibition will be open from May to August this year in the Kunsthall im Lipsiusbau in Dresden and at KUMU from October this year to April next year.

Carnegie Hall in New York, Flagey Concert Hall in Belgium and several other prestigious venues will soon announce their own plans for celebrating Arvo Pärt’s birthday.

A month-by-month guide to events in Estonia and around the world can be found on the website of the Arvo Pärt Centre.