Christmas Concert – Tallinn Boys’ Choir / Lüdigi Hall Autumn Season 2026

12 December
Christmas Concert
Tallinn Boys’ Choir
Conductor Lydia Rahula
Concertmaster Tomi Rahula

The Tallinn Boys’ Choir was founded in 1988 by the choir’s artistic director and principal conductor, Lydia Rahula. Since 2018, Kuno Kerge has also worked with the choir. The choir studio has 60–70 boys. In addition to the concert choir, two training choirs rehearse under the direction of Anneli Riisalu and Mia Martina Sarapuu.

The concert choir is a classical boys’ mixed choir (SATB), comprising boys aged 10–15 and young men and men aged 15–18 and older. Depending on the programme, 35–45 singers perform in the concert ensemble. The choir rehearses twice a week. Its repertoire ranges from chorales to vocal polyphony and from Estonian compositions to spirituals.

The Tallinn Boys’ Choir has performed major works by Beethoven, Honegger, Saint-Saëns, Bach, Mozart, Tobias, Artur Kapp and many other renowned composers in Estonia and abroad. Its most substantial work has been J. S. Bach’s oratorio “St John Passion”, which the choir performed at MustonenFest in Israel, Lithuania and Tallinn. The boys’ choir has achieved success and recognition at several international choral competitions, bringing home Grand Prix awards from international choral competitions in Tampere, Olomouc, Moscow and Malta. The choir has taken part in all Estonian Song Festivals and youth song festivals.

In addition to its concerts in 2026, the Tallinn Boys’ Choir will participate in the men’s and boys’ choir song day “Hoian pulssi lauluga”, organised by the Estonian Men’s Choral Association and taking place on 4 July in Viljandi. A pleasant surprise will surely be the Christmas concert held at the end of the year in Mihkel Lüdigi Hall in Vändra. This will be the choir’s first appearance in this venue. Listeners will certainly be delighted to hear F. Gruber’s “Silent Night” and A. Adam’s “Christmas Night”. Songs that we can sing together with the audience will also be included. Making music together brings joy.

Lydia Rahula is one of Estonia’s most distinctive choral conductors. She graduated from the choral conducting and music pedagogy programme of the Faculty of Music at the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute (now Tallinn University), where her teachers were Heino Kaljuste and Ants Sööt. In 1988, Lydia Rahula founded the Tallinn Boys’ Choir and choir studio, and remains the choir’s artistic director and principal conductor to this day. In addition to directing the boys’ choir, she works as a teacher in the specialised music classes at Tallinn 21st School. She gives open lessons to students of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre as well as to music teachers.

From 2003 to 2013, she was the founder, artistic director and principal conductor of the Estonian Children’s Choir. It is also noteworthy that from 1987 to 2019 Lydia Rahula was a conductor and also the general conductor at all Song Festivals, including those of the Estonian Men’s Choral Association and the Tartu Song Festivals. At the 13th Youth Song and Dance Celebration “Holy Is the Land” in 2023, Lydia Rahula conducted the combined choirs. At the 2026 men’s and boys’ choir song day in Viljandi, she conducted the boys’ choirs.

Her work and civic activities have been recognised with many awards, including the title of Teacher of the Year on two occasions. In 2011, Lydia Rahula was named Conductor–Music Teacher of the Year, and in 2018 she was recognised as a distinguished cultural figure of Tallinn. That same year, she was also awarded the Gustav Ernesaks Choral Music Grand Scholarship. In 1998, she was awarded the Tallinn Badge of Honour and the Order of the White Star, Class V. In 2004, she received the Blue Bird Badge of Gratitude from the Estonian National Committee of UNICEF. In 2019, she was named Tallinn University Alumna of the Century. Since 2022, Lydia Rahula has been an honorary member of the Estonian Music Teachers’ Association and the Estonian Men’s Choral Association.