Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (TCO, et, Tallinna Kammerorkester) is a

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

located 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 ' ...

, the capital city of

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 ...

. The orchestra was established in 1993 by the conductor

Tõnu Kaljuste Tõnu Kaljuste (born August 28, 1953) is an Estonian conductor. 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 chil ...

. The orchestra's music is mainly distributed by

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

, but also through other labels. The orchestra has performed in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

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 ...

, and around

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 ...

. They have performed at many music festivals, including the Bremen Music Festival, Budapest Autumn Festival, Torino Settembre Musical, and Tuusulanjärvi Festival. During 2013–2019, the chief conductor of the orchestra was

Risto Joost Risto Joost (born 22 June 1980) is an Estonian conductor and operatic countertenor. Life Born in Tallinn, Joost has been intensively involved with music since the age of six. He attended the special school for music in Tallinn. From 1986 to ...

. From 2019, the chief conductor has again been Tõnu Kaljuste. Conductors who have worked with the orchestra include, internationally,

Jaakko Kuusisto Jaakko Ilkka Kuusisto (17 January 1974 – 23 February 2022) was a Finnish violinist, composer, and conductor. Education After initial studies under Géza Szilvay and , Kuusisto went on to win the 1989 , place 4th in the International Jean S ...

, Daniel Raiskin,

John Storgårds John Gunnar Rafael Storgårds (born 20 October 1963 in Helsinki) is a Finnish violinist and conductor. Biography Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and continued his violin studies ...

Richard Tognetti Richard Leo Tognetti AO (born 4 August 1965) is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director. He is currently artistic dire ...

, Terje Tønnesen, and Valentin Zhuk. Estonian conductors of the orchestra include Jüri Alperten,

Olari Elts Olari Elts (born April 27, 1971 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He was the principal conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2006. He is the founder and director of the contemporary music ensemble NYYD Ensemble. ...

Kristjan Järvi Kristjan Järvi (, alternate (U.S.) spelling: Kristian Järvi) (born 13 June 1972, Tallinn) is an Estonian American conductor, composer and producer born in Estonia, younger son of the conductor Neeme Järvi and brother of conductor Paavo Järv ...

Paul Mägi Paul Mägi (born 13 October 1953) is an Estonian conductor in concert and opera and is also an academic teacher and violinist. He has commissioned works for the Estonian National Opera. Life and music Born in Tallinn (then Soviet Union), Mäg ...

Andres Mustonen Andres Mustonen (born 1 September 1953) is an Estonian conductor and violinist. Biography Mustonen was born in Tallinn on 1 September 1953. He graduated from the Tallinn Music High School in 1972 and five years later both he and Endel Lippus gra ...

, Vello Pähn, and

Arvo Volmer Arvo Volmer (born November 4, 1962 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. Volmer was principal conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2001. From 2004 to 2013 he was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Adelaide Sym ...

. In 2013, the orchestra was awarded the Estonian Music Council Prize. In 2014, Tõnu Kaljuste (as the conductor of orchestra) was given the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

's "

Adam's Lament Adam's Lament is an old Russian Orthodox lament, originally sung during Lent. Manuscripts of the lament date from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. The lament tells Adam's regret over the loss of paradise.John-Paul Himka, Andriy Zayarnyuk Let ...

References

External links

* 1993 establishments in Estonia Musical groups established in 1993 Estonian musical groups Chamber orchestras Organizations based in Tallinn Music in Tallinn {{Estonia-band-stub