#5048, Arvo Pärt at 90

#5048, Arvo Pärt at 90

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who turns 90 on September 11, has his music programmed on the concert stage more than any other living classical composer. In the 1960's, Pärt was the first Estonian composer to write 12 tone serial music in the Soviet Union, which he later turned his back on for more conventional classical sounds. He eventually moved to Berlin and came up with the style of composition called tintinnabuli, from the Latin "little bell…

Sacred texts and ‘little bells’: The building blocks of Arvo Pärt’s musical masterpieces

The Estonian composer has written some of the world’s most performed contemporary classical music. Many fans may not realize how deep the religious influences on his work are.

Arvo Pärt at 90

Arvo Pärt, Estonia’s most celebrated composer and one of the world’s most performed living musicians, turned 90 on 11 September. Born in Paide in 1935 and raised in Rakvere, Pärt is known for his starkly beautiful tintinnabuli style – a musical language that has carried him from Soviet-era censorship to the world’s great concert halls. Over the past 15 years he has been showered with major honours, among them Japan’s Praemium Imperiale, Sweden’s…