Rein Rannap (born 6 October 1953 in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

) is an Estonian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. Since 1968, Rannap has given numerous public

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

performances. Rannap has been active in management and composition for

Ruja Ruja was one of the foremost Estonian rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s. The name of the band comes from a neologism "ruja", for science fiction, though there are people who believe that "ruja" is actually made up of the first letters of the b ...

, Noor-Eesti and Hõim.

Pianist career

Rannap gave his first solo concert in 1968. Since that time, he has performed piano concerts in many regions of the (former)

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 ...

, a number of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an countries, as well as

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 1997 and 1999, he toured

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

under the '' Klaver tuleb külla'' ( Estonian for ''The Piano Comes to Visit'') programme, transporting his piano to various churches in Estonia for the performances.

Piano pieces and cycles

"Naive and innocent Tracks" (1980–1982) "Piano Concerto" (1984) "Cruise Control" (1991) "Six-pack piano" (1997) "Laulud klaveril" (2010) "Sõrmepalavik" (2011)

Discography

* "Varajased laulud" (2002) * "Tantsib klaveril" (2004) * "Läbi jäätunud klaasi" (2006) * "Klaver tuleb külla 10 - parimad palad" (2007) * "KlaveriKuld" (2009) * "Ilus maa" (2009) * "Hingelinnud" (2011)

Miscellania

In 2007, Rannap was chosen as one of the three jury members of ''

Eesti otsib superstaari ''Eesti otsib superstaari'' ''(Estonia is Searching for a Superstar)'' is an Estonian reality-competition gameshow airing on TV3. It debuted on 11 March 2007 and it has since become one of the most popular shows in Estonia. Part of the Idol ...

'', an Estonian remake of the British ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'' format.

Sources

Brief biography at the Estonian Music Information Centre

External links

* 1953 births Living people Musicians from Tallinn Estonian pianists Tallinn Music High School alumni Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni 20th-century Estonian musicians 21st-century Estonian musicians 20th-century Estonian composers 21st-century Estonian composers 21st-century pianists Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class {{Estonia-composer-stub