News

We are happy to announce that the Arvo Pärt Centre will be open again from 20 May. We will be following all the necessary regulations to maintain health and safety of our visitors and employees.

The current crisis has affected everyone. The Arvo Pärt Centre is empty, and for a while longer, we are unable to share the touch of music through our concerts, invite you to listen to the inspiring thoughts of creative people, or to journey through the composer’s life. We are all hoping that this difficult time will pass soon. Until then, we would be incredibly grateful if you could support us, so that we can keep exploring Arvo Pärt’s works, and that there would be times again to experience the music at our Centre.

The world premiere of Arvo Pärt’s "Für Jan van Eyck" will take place on 22 September in Ghent, Belgium. The initiative for creating this piece came from the Belgian choir Collegium Vocale Gent, and it was commissioned by the City of Ghent, who has dedicated the year 2020 to celebrating Jan van Eyck.

The Spanish BBVA Foundation today announced the laureate of the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the field of music, the recipient of the award is composer Arvo Pärt.

An outstanding figure in Polish music, composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki (23.11.1933–29.03.2020) has passed away. Composing steadily over many decades, he became one of the pioneers of European contemporary music. Penderecki was particularly important for starting a new wave of modern music in 1960s with his avant-garde compositions. By premiering at the Warsaw Autumn festival of contemporary music these works became also familiar to Estonian composers.

In celebration of Arvo Pärt’s 85th birthday in September, many special events have been planned in Estonia and elsewhere, as listed below. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many long-planned concerts have been cancelled, and a festival dedicated to Arvo Pärt which was supposed to take place in April at Muziekgebouw, one of the most

Due to the state of emergency declared by the Estonian government the Arvo Pärt Centre is closed until 1 May. All previously scheduled concerts, educational programmes and guided tours have been cancelled.

To celebrate the composer’s 85th birthday, the Arvo Pärt Centre – the composer’s personal archive and information and music centre in Laulasmaa – and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre are holding an international research conference dedicated to Arvo Pärt's work and research on the surrounding cultural context.

On 27‒29 February, an international conference on education and theology, “From Creator to creativity: understanding human creativity from theological, pedagogical and psychological perspectives”, will be held in Tallinn and Laulasmaa. For the second year running, the St. John the Evangelist School conference will be held in collaboration with the Arvo Pärt Centre. At the heart of

The title Friend of Culture was awarded to Monica and Ott Kaukver, patrons of the Arvo Pärt Centre.

The Arvo Pärt Centre prepared a gift for the blind students of the Tallinn Heleni School by giving the school books with the words to Arvo Pärt’s children’s songs in braille.

A well-known Estonian music journalist Ivalo Randalu (1936–2019) passed away on 19 December. Arvo Pärt and Ivalo Randalu got to know each other already in 1954 when studying together in Harri Otsa’s composition class at the Tallinn School of Music. Despite the different paths they chose they remained close friends and kindred spirits.