First Advent Concert: Tallinn Boys’ Choir

First Advent concert featuring Tallinn Boys’ Choir. Conducted by Lydia Rahula, Chief Conductor of Tallinn. Conductor: Kuno Kerge. Accompanist: Tomi Rahula. Tickets: €10/15.

Further information: Tallinn Boys’ Choir was founded in 1988 by its artistic director and chief conductor, Lydia Rahula. Kuno Kerge works with the choir as a conductor, and Tomi Rahula as an accompanist. Nearly one hundred boys sing at the choir studio. The concert choir is a classical boys’ choir (SATB), with boys aged 10–15 and young men over 16. The concert ensemble numbers 40–50 singers, depending on the programme. Many of the boys study and play an instrument. Most can sing prima vista from sheet music.

The choir’s repertoire is wide-ranging, from chorales to vocal polyphony and from Estonian compositions to spirituals. In collaboration with several internationally acclaimed conductors and orchestras, Tallinn Boys’ Choir has performed major works by well-known composers including Beethoven, Honegger, Saint-Saëns, Bach and Mozart. For example, on Palm Sunday 2019, the choir performed J. S. Bach’s oratorio St John Passion, which it had also sung in Israel, Lithuania and Tallinn in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, the choir performed the same major work at Tallinn’s Kaarli Church under the direction of Andres Mustonen.

The choirboys have taken part in several Estonian National Opera productions, including Verdi’s Don Carlos and Puccini’s La bohème. The choir has performed in 30 countries, some on several occasions, including across Europe, as well as in Japan, Thailand, China, Canada and the United States. It has performed alongside the Vienna Boys’ Choir, American boys’ choirs and many other renowned choirs. Tallinn Boys’ Choir has achieved success and recognition at several international choral competitions, including in Vienna, Tolosa and Rimini. It has won four Grand Prix awards at international choral competitions in Tampere, Olomouc, Moscow and Malta. Recordings of the choir’s concerts have been broadcast on radio and television in several countries. The choir has released four CDs and two DVDs.