Name Tonu Kaljuste | Ex-spouse Ulle Kaljuste | |
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Role Conductor · tonukaljuste.com Education Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Music group Swedish Radio Choir (1995 – 2001) Awards Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance Albums Kanon Pokajanen, Forgotten Peoples, Litany to Thunder, Beatus, Neenia Similar People Veljo Tormis, Arvo Part, Erkki‑Sven Tuur, Tonu Korvits, Lepo Sumera | ||
3P Arvo Pärt 1968 Credo entire with subtitles
Tõnu Kaljuste (born August 28, 1953) is an Estonian conductor.
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Born in Tallinn, Kaljuste is the son of Heino Kaljuste (1925–1989), an Estonian choral conductor, and Lia Kaljuste, a radio journalist. Tõnu sang in his father's choirs as a child, and graduated from the Tallinn Music High School (Tallinna Muusikakeskkool) in 1971. He completed a graduate degree at the Tallinn Conservatory in 1976, studying with Jüri Variste and Roman Matsov, and continued as a postgraduate at the Leningrad Conservatory until 1978.
Kaljuste took his father's role as leader of the Ellerhein Chamber choir in 1974, an ensemble that performed choral works ranging from Renaissance music to contemporary avant-garde music. He was professor of choral conducting at the Tallinn Conservatory from 1978 to 1980, and won the Best Conductor prize at the 1980 Béla Bartók International Choral Competition. With financial support from the Estonian government, Kaljuste turned the Ellerhein Chamber Choir into a full-time ensemble, and renamed it the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir in 1981. Kaljuste also conducted with the Estonian National Opera between 1978 and 1995.
After Estonia won independence in 1991, many of the barriers to international performing and recording were lifted, and Kaljuste became well known for his recordings on ECM Records of the works of Estonian composers such as Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Heino Eller, and Arvo Pärt. In 1993, he formed the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; he was also principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir between 1994 and 2000, as well as of the Netherlands Chamber Choir (1998–2000).
Aside from Estonian composers, Kaljuste has also recorded works of Beethoven, Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Sergei Taneyev, Vivaldi, and others.
In 2014, Kaljuste was listed by the Estonian World as the second most outstanding Estonian in that year, right behind Arvo Pärt.
In 1980, he married actress Ülle Kaljuste (née Side); the couple later divorced.
Discography
With Paul Giger
