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Heli Lääts
Heli Lääts (24 June 1932 – 16 February 2018) was an Estonian singer ( mezzo-soprano) whose career began in the mid-1950s. Lääts predominantly performed estrada, chamber, pop, polka, and jazz music. Early life and education Heli Lääts was born in Kuressaare, on the island of Saaremaa to Vladimir and Julia Lääts (''née'' Allik). She was the youngest of three children and only girl. Her eldest brother was chemist Koit Lääts (1928–2008) and her other brother was physicist Valdur Lääts (1929–2002). She spent her early years in the village of Sauvere. Following the German occupation of Estonia during World War II, Lääts' mother, a schoolteacher, was executed by German soldiers by gunshot on 18 November 1941 in a reprisal killing of villagers for the assassination of a German military officer. After the death of her mother, she was raised by her aunt Anna. Her father later remarried. Lääts later attended primary and secondary schools in Kivimäe and Rahum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuressaare
Kuressaare () is a town on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Saaremaa Parish and the capital of Saare County. Kuressaare is the westernmost town in Estonia. The recorded population on 1 January 2018 was 13,276. The town is situated on the southern coast of Saaremaa island, facing the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea, and is served by the Kuressaare Airport, Roomassaare harbour, and Kuressaare yacht harbour. Names Kuressaare's historic name Arensburg (from Middle High German ''a(a)r:'' eagle, raptor) renders the Latin denotation ''arx aquilae'' for the city's castle. The fortress and the eagle, tetramorph symbol of Saint John the Evangelist, are also depicted on Kuressaare's coat of arms. The town, which grew around the fortress, was simultaneously known as Arensburg and Kuressaarelinn; the latter name being a combination of ''Kuressaare''—an ancient name of the Saaremaa Island—and ''linn'', which means ''town''.Pospelov, p. 28 Alternative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Occupation Of Estonia During World War II
During World War II, in the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then warring German and Russian Empires. However, in the wake of the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Stalinist Soviet Union had invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940, and the country was formally annexed into the USSR in August 1940. Initially, in the summer of 1941, the German invaders were perceived by most Estonians as liberators from the Soviet terror, having arrived only a week after the mass deportation of tens of thousands of people from Estonia and other territories that had been occupied by USSR in 1939–1941: eastern Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Although hopes were raised for the restoration of Estonia's independence, it was soon realized that Germans were but another occupying power. The Nazi German authorities exploited occu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra ( et, Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester ''(ERSO)'') is the leading orchestra in Estonia and is based in the capital Tallinn. The orchestra traces it roots to 18 December 1926, the first concert broadcast by Tallinn Radio. The broadcast concert was performed by an ENSO predecessor, a trio headed by Hugo Schütz. The ensemble's ranks grew steadily, and by 1939 the Radio Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra included 39 performers. In addition to radio concerts, the public enjoyed live symphonies presented by the orchestra in conjunction with guest artists from the Estonia Theatre. In 1939, one of Estonia's most outstanding musical figures of the day, Olav Roots, accepted the role of orchestra director. With Roots as director, the Orchestra continued to perform symphonies in Tallinn throughout the WWII period. In the post-war years, the Orchestra was directed by Leo Tauts, Sergei Prohhorov and Roman Matsov, who was principal conductor from 1950 to 1963. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev (Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popular Music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia'' It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occupation Of The Baltic States
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in August 1939, immediately before the outbreak of World War II. The three countries were then annexed into the Soviet Union (formally as " constituent republics") in August 1940. The United States and most other Western countries never recognised this incorporation, considering it illegal. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. In July 1941, the Third Reich incorporated the Baltic territory into its ''Reichskommissariat Ostland''. As a result of the Red Army's Baltic Offensive of 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states and trapped the remaining German forces in the Courland pocket until their formal surrender in May 1945. Latvian plenipotentiar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Ots
Georg Ots (21 March 1920 – 5 September 1975) was an Estonian singer, actor and People's Artist of the USSR (1960). Biography Before studying singing with the Estonian baritone Aleksander Rahnel in Yaroslavl in the rear of the Eastern Front, where a cultural center for evacuated Estonians had been established, Ots was a young Navy Officer who had escaped a sinking ship and was taken prisoner in Russia. He was released a year later, and on his return home, he auditioned for a place at the conservatory in Tallinn. At the same time, he became a member of the chorus at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn. His solo opera debut was a small part in ''Eugene Onegin'' (1944). He soon became one of the most revered singers in Estonia and Finland and was also admired and beloved across Russia. Ots often performed in many major opera houses of the former Soviet Union, being especially cherished at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. His repertoire included the roles of Eugene Onegin, Yeletzky ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estonian Academy Of Music And Theatre
The Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (''Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia'') began as a mixed choir of the Estonia Society Musical Department (EMD) on the eve of World War I. The assembly of the Estonia Society created the Tallinn Higher Music School on November 17, 1918. The opening ceremony took place on September 28, 1919. In 1923 the educational institution was renamed the Tallinn Conservatoire. In 1938 the State Drama School was opened. In 1993 the school was renamed the “Estonian Academy of Music”. In 1995 the Drama Faculty was renamed the Higher Theatre School. Some prominent graduates of the Estonian Academy of Music include singers Aile Asszonyi, Heli Lääts, and Ain Anger, conductors Roman Matsov, Tõnu Kaljuste, Olari Elts, Eri Klas, and Kristiina Poska, composers Arvo Pärt, Lepo Sumera, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Ardo Ran Varres, director Andres Puustusmaa, and actors Tõnu Aav, Heino Mandri, Elmo Nüganen, Ain Lutsepp, Margus Oopkaup, Jan Uuspõld, Tõnu Tepa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estonian Song Festival
The Estonian Song Festival (in Estonian: ''laulupidu'', ) is one of the largest choral events in the world, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It is held every five years in July on the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds (''Lauluväljak'') simultaneously with the Estonian Dance Festival.Estonian Song and Dance Celebrations Estonian Song and Dance Celebration Foundation The joint choir has comprised more than 30,000 singers performing to an audience of 80,000. Almost every Festival features famous Estonian songs " Laul Põhjamaast", " |
University Of Tartu
The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest and most prestigious university. It was founded under the name of ''Academia Gustaviana'' in 1632 by Baron Johan Skytte, the Swedish Governors-General, Governor-General (1629–1634) of Swedish Livonia, Swedish Ingria, Ingria, and Karelia (historical province of Finland), Karelia, with the required ratification provided by his long-time friend and former student – from age 7 –, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, shortly before the king's death on 6 November in the Battle of Lützen (1632), during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Nearly 14,000 students are at the university, of whom over 1,300 are foreign students. The language of instruction in most curricula is Estonian, some more notable exceptions are taught in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
