Erkki-Sven Tüür

Erkki-Sven Tüür (1959) is one of Estonia's most highly acclaimed contemporary composers. He began his career as a 'chamber rock' musician and founded the intellectual rock group In spe in Tallinn at the age of seventeen. He was an active member of the group until 1983, acting in it as composer, singer, flautist, keyboard player and percussionist. Erkki-Sven Tüür studied composition from 1979-80 at the Tallinn Music Institute and from 1980-84 at the Tallinn Conservatoire with Jaan Rääts. Tüür seeks to write music that combines technical know-how with emotional power to develop a musical reality where the two sides - intellectual and emotional - can live together side by side. As a student Tüür was interested both in American minimalism and also the post-serial textures of Ligeti and Xenakis. Both traditions find an echo in his works. His musical architecture is often influenced by visual ideas and he is very interested in a combination of opposites: tonality versus atonality, regular repetitive rhythms versus irregular complex ones, tranquil meditativeness versus explosive theatricality.