Festival TubIN 2025—A series of concerts in Tartu and Tallinn

Text Stewart Johnson

In honour of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Eduard Tubin, the Festival TubIN 2025 will feature a series of nine concerts. While a couple of these concerts will take place in Tallinn, most of them will be in Tartu. He is widely lauded as Estonia’s most important symphonist, also garnering world renown in his time.

Wednesday, 1 October, will see the first concert, in Tartu’s St Paul’s Church. It will feature music by Tubin, as well as Arvo Pärt, and Heino Eller. These three had an interesting relationship: Eller is known as the father of Estonian symphony, founding Estonia’s most prestigious music programme, where Tubin himself was musically educated. After fleeing the advancing Soviet army in 1944, he fled to Sweden, where he continued his work. He was able to send banned composition textbooks via Eller to Arvo Pärt, who was stuck in Estonia at the time. These books greatly influenced his education and style, even today.

One of Arvo Pärt’s most beloved compositions, “Fratres”, is in fact dedicated to the memory of Tubin. This piece will be played at this first concert.

The rest of the concerts feature the music of several composers, but all focus on the works of Tubin. The full list of concerts is available here.

Many of the concerts will play little known works by Tubin, from his earlier era. The Festival TubIN 2025 is a rare opportunity to learn about the background of much of Arvo Pärt’s work as well. He is generally considered the greatest living composer in the world.

To learn more about this and similar topics
Arvo Pärt Classical Concert Eduard Tubin Events In Tartu Festival Heino Eller symphony