Estonian choral music:
Choral music is the passion of Estonian choral conductor and manager, Kaie Tanner. She holds the position of Secretary General in the Estonian Choral Association and since 2010 has conducted the children’s choir and preparatory choir in Children’s Music Studio of Estonian Radio. She is also chief conductor of the Children’s Choir of Estonian Church Music Union.
Expressing their national identity through song has been an Estonian tradition for as long as memory serves–-the Estonian Literature Museum contains more than 1.5 million pages of folk songs and there are continual competitions and festivals around the country. The country’s “choir culture” is flourishing, with choral music continuing to serve as the force that unites Estonians as they enter the third decade of their fledgling democracy.
I met with Kaie during a visit to Estonia on the occasion of its 20th anniversary of re-independence from the Soviet Union. In what became known as the “Singing Revolution,” residents of this Baltic state wielded a long-held cultural practice as a weapon of change, without a drop of blood spilled.
Over the four years between 1987 and 1991, hundreds of thousands of Estonians gathered publicly in a series of spontaneous events to sing prohibited patriotic songs, risking their lives to proclaim their desire for independence, culminating in a choral event that close to one-third of the country’s citizens attended
