By Anneli Reigas, AFP
Feb 22, 2008
TALLINN -The Baltic state of Estonia is tuning up to mark 90 years of independence on Sunday, and its celebrations will spotlight the pivotal role of song and music in its history.
"I think it's in our blood to feel so attached to beautiful music," Evald, a Tallinn resident who at 97 is older than his own country, told AFP.
"As a boy I was singing in a choir myself. The emotions we got from the song festivals helped us to keep our spirit during the darkest years of Soviet occupation," he added.
Estonia's song festivals, which draw hundreds of thousands of people and have been organised regularly since 1869, have given its people comfort as they have been shaken by the winds of history and politics.
Estonia declared independence on February 24, 1918, after the communist Russian Revolution brought down the Tsarist empire.
The country enjoyed only 22 years of freedom, before being reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, seized by Nazi Germany in 1941 and again taken over by Moscow in 1944.
Tens of thousands of Estonians were deported to Siberia or fled into Western exile during the five-decade Soviet era.
Music became a symbol of passive resistance to Soviet rule, a way for Estonians to express their national pride, just as was under the Russian empire.
In the Soviet era, Estonians performed in their native tongue, albeit under huge, politically-correct posters of Lenin and Marx.
These festivals ended with a song that was never listed on the official programme: "My Dear Fatherland", written by an Estonian poet in 19th Century, which brought tears to the eyes of hundreds of thousands of audience members who sang along with the choir.
Estonia won back its independence in 1991 from the crumbling Soviet bloc, and the country of 1.3 million people has since worked hard to remind the world that it is no teenage newcomer on the international stage.
Hence the ambitious plans for its 90th anniversary, in which music, of course, will play a major part.
This year, world-renowned Estonian musicians, composers and conductors such as Paavo Jarvi are to perform in 37 countries across the globe to celebrate.
"The strong and long music culture in Estonia is definitely one of the best trademarks of our nation," Grammy-award winning Jarvi told AFP.
Jarvi is the chief conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the United States, Germany's Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie. He is scheduled to become lead conductor of the Orchestre de Paris in 2010.
He comes from a family that symbolises the Estonians' troubled history of exile and provides sonorous proof of the musical talent of this Baltic nation.
His father, conductor Neeme Jarvi, fled with his wife and three children to the United States in 1980. Paavo's brother Kristjan Jarvi conducts Vienna Tonkunstler Symphony Orchestra, while his sister Maarika Jarvi is a flautist.
Music also played its part in Estonia's independence drive in the dying days of Soviet rule.
The so-called Singing Revolution began in June 1988 when Estonians started to sing anti-Soviet anthems and fly Estonia's banned blue, black and white national flag.
Later Tallinn's song festival venue was used for pro-independence rallies. Emotional memories of the musical opposition will be uppermost next year.
From July 2-5, 2009, Tallinn's vast open-air Baltic shore venue will host the five-yearly national song festival.
Tens of thousands of Estonians practice year-round in their local choir to get a shot at attending the festival, where a single conductor leads a choir of 19,000 -- a size unseen elsewhere.
"When I tell my colleagues abroad about this, I often get the feeling they at first think I'm slightly crazy or I've made it up," Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told AFP.
2008/11/02
On right click "quitar"/For E.
Click the headline to get to general Taize site, then on right click "quitar".
Nature Lovers Omnibus drives Estonians out from city dust
No matter whether it is a chilly winter day with lakes and some bays covered with ice or one of those rare hot summer days so much longed in North, every weekend morning Nature Lovers Omnibus waits Estonians in front of the national library to drive them out from dusty city.
Seven years ago, in 2001, Jaan Riis (48) had ended his career as a journalist. The monthly nature magazine where he worked as an editor-in-chief, changed ownership and Riis decided to resign from his post.
"Becoming suddenly jobless forced me to think is there anything else in addition to journalism that I could do with passion. My head was rather empty for several weeks. Then one day when I was drinking a bear in cafe in Tallinn old town and wondering again what to do next I suddenly got an idea to organize a bus trip for those nature lovers in city who lack a car but still wish to get off to nature on weekend with other nature lovers," Jaan Riis says.
"So I orderd the bus and let the news out, being ready to face the fact that it will be me only standing next to the bus the day of departure. But it turned out opposite - so many people turned out that I had to call for another bus and so it started," Riis adds.
One of the principles of Jaan Riis Nature Lovers Omnibus is that despite people are asked to inform whether they wish to attend some of his trips on weekend, there are no lists of participants and nobody is never left behind.
When more people than expected turn out and one bus cant suite them, another bus or two will be called. Over the years, Riis has made so many good contacts with bus owners and nobody gets surprised when he alerts them just weekend morning. Most of his trips start from Tallinn and some from Tartu, second largest town in Estonia.
While most of the people attending his trips, are locals, some foreigners have also joined his trips over the years.
"Different nations get exited for different things. While Fins like most the bird watching in Estonia, Italians, Germans and French are more exited of trips to one of those boggy, givey, maremmatic areas that Estonia is full. For South-Europeans there is of course nothing more exciting than to join us in those few really cold winters when we sometimes make bus trips to islands, driving the bus on ice over froozen Baltic Sea - some tourists who have done it first have got absolutely crazy like children," Riis said.
In July, one of the bus trips took the nature lovers from Tallinn to South Estonia and North Latvia. Bus trip that included nearly 700 km driving, guided walking tours in forest and picnic nearby river cost just 13 euros. Those who wished even more excitement - a 3 hours canoe trip on river, evening sauna in steamy tent put up on river sand and overnight camping with meals at the same place, organised all by local nature lovers - Estonias most famous alpinist Alar Sikk and his brother Üllar Sikk - had to pay some extra. To encourage younger families to attend, all trips are free for children up to 7 years old and pupils get discounted price.
Another weekend trip in July took over hundred of people to see the beautiful island Muhumaa and enjoy the concert at local church costed just 30 euros, including food.
"I have tried to keep the price as low as possible because I think the moment I turn greed all the idea of Nature Lovers Omnibus will loose meaning and I will also loose the assistance of local nature lovers who often help us to organise these tours," Riis said.
In summers many Nature Lovers trips are combined with concerts in nature with musicians eager to offer discounted price for their performance. On first weekend of August nature lovers bus took city folks to Leigo lake in South Estonia where they walked in local forests and listened later the concert given on lake performed by Latvian Symphony Orchestra.
Info about coming weekend trips are put up at Nature Lovers website (http://www.looduseomnibuss) on late Wednesday or Thursday and in addition, over 9000 people have signed to get the info via email.
"I think that feeling you are part of nature makes you better person. People who like nature appreciate a life and another persons more. Had it be up to me to decide, I could request that every child in every city in all world should be obliged to attend regular nature trips every year as part of their schooling program," Riis added.
Anneli Reigas
Seven years ago, in 2001, Jaan Riis (48) had ended his career as a journalist. The monthly nature magazine where he worked as an editor-in-chief, changed ownership and Riis decided to resign from his post.
"Becoming suddenly jobless forced me to think is there anything else in addition to journalism that I could do with passion. My head was rather empty for several weeks. Then one day when I was drinking a bear in cafe in Tallinn old town and wondering again what to do next I suddenly got an idea to organize a bus trip for those nature lovers in city who lack a car but still wish to get off to nature on weekend with other nature lovers," Jaan Riis says.
"So I orderd the bus and let the news out, being ready to face the fact that it will be me only standing next to the bus the day of departure. But it turned out opposite - so many people turned out that I had to call for another bus and so it started," Riis adds.
One of the principles of Jaan Riis Nature Lovers Omnibus is that despite people are asked to inform whether they wish to attend some of his trips on weekend, there are no lists of participants and nobody is never left behind.
When more people than expected turn out and one bus cant suite them, another bus or two will be called. Over the years, Riis has made so many good contacts with bus owners and nobody gets surprised when he alerts them just weekend morning. Most of his trips start from Tallinn and some from Tartu, second largest town in Estonia.
While most of the people attending his trips, are locals, some foreigners have also joined his trips over the years.
"Different nations get exited for different things. While Fins like most the bird watching in Estonia, Italians, Germans and French are more exited of trips to one of those boggy, givey, maremmatic areas that Estonia is full. For South-Europeans there is of course nothing more exciting than to join us in those few really cold winters when we sometimes make bus trips to islands, driving the bus on ice over froozen Baltic Sea - some tourists who have done it first have got absolutely crazy like children," Riis said.
In July, one of the bus trips took the nature lovers from Tallinn to South Estonia and North Latvia. Bus trip that included nearly 700 km driving, guided walking tours in forest and picnic nearby river cost just 13 euros. Those who wished even more excitement - a 3 hours canoe trip on river, evening sauna in steamy tent put up on river sand and overnight camping with meals at the same place, organised all by local nature lovers - Estonias most famous alpinist Alar Sikk and his brother Üllar Sikk - had to pay some extra. To encourage younger families to attend, all trips are free for children up to 7 years old and pupils get discounted price.
Another weekend trip in July took over hundred of people to see the beautiful island Muhumaa and enjoy the concert at local church costed just 30 euros, including food.
"I have tried to keep the price as low as possible because I think the moment I turn greed all the idea of Nature Lovers Omnibus will loose meaning and I will also loose the assistance of local nature lovers who often help us to organise these tours," Riis said.
In summers many Nature Lovers trips are combined with concerts in nature with musicians eager to offer discounted price for their performance. On first weekend of August nature lovers bus took city folks to Leigo lake in South Estonia where they walked in local forests and listened later the concert given on lake performed by Latvian Symphony Orchestra.
Info about coming weekend trips are put up at Nature Lovers website (http://www.looduseomnibuss) on late Wednesday or Thursday and in addition, over 9000 people have signed to get the info via email.
"I think that feeling you are part of nature makes you better person. People who like nature appreciate a life and another persons more. Had it be up to me to decide, I could request that every child in every city in all world should be obliged to attend regular nature trips every year as part of their schooling program," Riis added.
Anneli Reigas
Estonia's Jarvi family hold reunion concert in Tallinn
TALLINN: Nearly 30 years after Neeme Jarvi took his family and left the Soviet Union for the United States, the conductor from tiny Estonia who has become a global music giant will hold a homecoming concert in Tallinn that spans the generations.
Sharing the conductor's baton with Jarvi for the concert in the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn on Saturday will be his sons, Paavo Jarvi and Kristjan Jarvi.
Daughter Maarika Jarvi, a flautist, will be a featured solo artist in the concert, while a handful of Neeme's grandchildren will be in the audience.
The entire family will be travelling to Estonia especially for the concert, with Grammy-award winner Paavo arriving at the last minute because of professional commitments in Germany.
The concert is not only a birthday celebration for Jarvi, who will be 70 on June 7, but also a homecoming for the entire family, which has kept alive its love of Estonia despite long years spent outside the Baltic state.
"Although my family and I have been living far away from our homeland for 27 years, we have always remained attached to our Estonian roots," Neeme Jarvi told AFP.
"It's a great honour to be a member of a tiny nation of around only one million people that has survived wars and occupations by Russians, Germans and even Danes and Swedes," said Jarvi, who is currently chief conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the United States.
After working for 17 years as a conductor in his native Estonia, which was a Soviet republic from 1945 until 1991, Jarvi took his wife Liilia and three children and fled the Soviet Union in 1980.
With just 200 US dollars to his name, he emigrated to the United States, where he was immediately snapped up by Columbia Artists.
His debut concerts in exile were with major US orchestras : the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
"When I left the Soviet Union it was like a prison - whenever I was invited to conduct in the West, it was up to Moscow to decide whether I could go. And they never let me take the kids," he said.
"When we finally left the empire behind, with almost no money, the new job proposals came very quickly. I learnt from that, that if you want to open the door to new opportunities, you have to be free to take those opportunities."
Jarvi will share the baton with his sons Paavo and Kristjan at Saturday's sold-out concert.
They will conduct the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, with Maarika featuring as a solo artist on the flute.
Tenor Juhan Tralla will be the featured soloist of the Estonian National Male Choir, which is also taking part in the concert of Sibelius' Finlandia, movements of the Aladdin Suite by Nielsen; and works by Liszt and Estonian composers Tormis, Kapp and Eller.
For 44-year-old Paavo Jarvi, conducting an orchestra is a childhood dream come true.
"As a kid I used to sit for hours at the concert hall, watching my father's rehearsals and dreaming that perhaps one day it will be me standing in front of the orchestra," said Paavo, who won a Grammy award in 2003 for his recordings of Sibelius cantatas.
Paavo Järvi is currently lead conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the United States, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and regularly guest conducts around the world.
Kristjan Järvi conducts the Vienna Tonkunstler Symphony Orchestra, and is artistic director of the New York Absolute Ensemble, which has a repertory running from Renaissance to rock music. He established the ensemble in 1993.
From their outposts around the world, the Jarvi family watched with dismay the riots that rocked Tallinn in April, triggered when a monument to Soviet soldiers who fought fascism in World War II was removed from the centre of the city.
Paavo thinks he has a solution to the violence that erupted in the riots and the ensuing anti-Estonian rhetoric from Moscow.
"We should start changing the way we teach history at school," he told AFP.
"It would be much better to teach kids history through music history, because if we keep teaching history the way we do now, from one war to the next, we will continue to raise our kids with the wrong mentality," said the father of two, who admits that, as a child, he didn't know "that some families do something else for a job, other than music."
For Estonians, the Jarvi family concert is a reminder of the role music has played in the country's history.
Estonians sang their way through the Soviet occupation that began at the end of World War II, and with their "Singing Revolution" -- peaceful, musical demonstrations in the late 1980s -- opened the gates to renewed independence in 1991.
In 1979, when she was 11 years old, Jana Vaabel attended the last concert Jarvi conducted in Tallinn before taking his family out of the Soviet Union.
"All of us here in Estonia feel great pride at having produced such world-class musicians," the now 38-year-old hairdresser told AFP.
Vaabel was unable to get tickets to the concert but intends to go along to the concert hall on Saturday to see if anyone is selling a seat.
Anneli Reigas, AFP
May 27, 2007
2008/11/01
Dancing Indian nun puts Estonians through their paces
By Anneli Reigas, AFP
TALLINN: As another long, dark winter
enshrouds the northernmost of the Baltic states, a
band of girls gathers in a convent in Tallinn, not to
share the warmth of communal prayer but to study the
art of bodily expression with a dancing nun from
India.
Sister Creszenzia, 37, originally from Calicut in the
south Indian state of Kerala, has been giving Indian
dance lessons at the convent since her arrival in
Estonia four years ago.
"When I see Estonians performing these dances with
such grace, my heart fills with pride," she said after
a recent class.
"People here are said to be reserved and unwilling to
show emotions, but I have the opposite impression,"
she added.
Most of Sister Creszenzia's pupils are young, between
seven and 17.
"The dancing is very hard -- like a fitness program --
and afterwards I am very tired," said Ingrid Aavola,
17, who has attended classes since they began four
years ago.
"But I like it a lot, partly because Sister Crescenzia
is a very joyful nun," she added.
In September, the Sister's youthful dance troupe gave
a performance to mark the ordination of French-born
Philippe Jourdan as the first Catholic bishop since
World War II in this overwhelmingly Lutheran country.
"Indian dances tell a story with the body," Sister
Crescenzia explained. The saga performed for Jourdan's
ordination was "about unhappy love -- the battle of a
young couple whose feelings were denounced by their
families, resulting in the death of the boy," she
said.
And how did the good bishop feel about this rather
spicy dance drama?
"I think it is very positive that the convent offers
these girls the possibility to learn Indian dance," he
said. "I liked their dancing, it was rather exotic."
"True feelings are nothing to be ashamed about," said
Sister Crescenzia, whose given name was Mary. "I was
in love myself when I was a young girl in India but
now my soul is dedicated to God."
A convent has stood on the site where the dance
classes are held since 1419. But only in 2001 -- after
a break of several centuries -- did nuns once again
take up residence in the renovated complex, which
includes a church and hostel, built by the Sisters of
the Order of St. Birgitta.
The nuns wake up every morning at 5:45, say their
first prayer at 6:10 and then attend mass at 7:30.
Once a month every nun has a free day -- she can sleep
in but still has to pray.
"A nun's life has changed a lot in recent decades, for
the better. The dance course is proof of that," Sister
Creszenzia said.
Other nuns in the convent have different hobbies.
Mexican-born Mother Riccarda, who heads the convent,
practices ikebana, the Japanese art of flower
arranging.
"These days people value money too much. They should
cherish their families more and look for happiness in
less materialistic things. In poor countries like
Mexico and India, people seem somehow happier than in
the rich West," the mother superior said.
Estonia's 1.33 million people are mainly Lutheran,
with a minuscule Catholic community numbering around
6,000.
21 October 2005
TALLINN: As another long, dark winter
enshrouds the northernmost of the Baltic states, a
band of girls gathers in a convent in Tallinn, not to
share the warmth of communal prayer but to study the
art of bodily expression with a dancing nun from
India.
Sister Creszenzia, 37, originally from Calicut in the
south Indian state of Kerala, has been giving Indian
dance lessons at the convent since her arrival in
Estonia four years ago.
"When I see Estonians performing these dances with
such grace, my heart fills with pride," she said after
a recent class.
"People here are said to be reserved and unwilling to
show emotions, but I have the opposite impression,"
she added.
Most of Sister Creszenzia's pupils are young, between
seven and 17.
"The dancing is very hard -- like a fitness program --
and afterwards I am very tired," said Ingrid Aavola,
17, who has attended classes since they began four
years ago.
"But I like it a lot, partly because Sister Crescenzia
is a very joyful nun," she added.
In September, the Sister's youthful dance troupe gave
a performance to mark the ordination of French-born
Philippe Jourdan as the first Catholic bishop since
World War II in this overwhelmingly Lutheran country.
"Indian dances tell a story with the body," Sister
Crescenzia explained. The saga performed for Jourdan's
ordination was "about unhappy love -- the battle of a
young couple whose feelings were denounced by their
families, resulting in the death of the boy," she
said.
And how did the good bishop feel about this rather
spicy dance drama?
"I think it is very positive that the convent offers
these girls the possibility to learn Indian dance," he
said. "I liked their dancing, it was rather exotic."
"True feelings are nothing to be ashamed about," said
Sister Crescenzia, whose given name was Mary. "I was
in love myself when I was a young girl in India but
now my soul is dedicated to God."
A convent has stood on the site where the dance
classes are held since 1419. But only in 2001 -- after
a break of several centuries -- did nuns once again
take up residence in the renovated complex, which
includes a church and hostel, built by the Sisters of
the Order of St. Birgitta.
The nuns wake up every morning at 5:45, say their
first prayer at 6:10 and then attend mass at 7:30.
Once a month every nun has a free day -- she can sleep
in but still has to pray.
"A nun's life has changed a lot in recent decades, for
the better. The dance course is proof of that," Sister
Creszenzia said.
Other nuns in the convent have different hobbies.
Mexican-born Mother Riccarda, who heads the convent,
practices ikebana, the Japanese art of flower
arranging.
"These days people value money too much. They should
cherish their families more and look for happiness in
less materialistic things. In poor countries like
Mexico and India, people seem somehow happier than in
the rich West," the mother superior said.
Estonia's 1.33 million people are mainly Lutheran,
with a minuscule Catholic community numbering around
6,000.
21 October 2005
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