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 Polar Music Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal. His works such as Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel and Tabula Rasa are performed across continents, heard as much for their austerity as for their quiet power.
The 90th birthday was marked today at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, where family, colleagues and admirers gathered for a programme of music and tributes. It was a fitting celebration for a composer whose work, born of silence and struggle, continues to speak of unity in a fractured world.
Read also: Arvo Pärt: a visual retrospective
