Introduction

The main mission of Eesti Kontsert is to coordinate musical activity in Estonia, organise concerts, and initiate new music programmes.

As Estonia’s largest professional concert organiser, Eesti Kontsert plays a key role in shaping and developing the country’s musical life. We create performance opportunities for Estonian musicians and composers and bring high-quality classical and contemporary music to audiences across Estonia. Working closely with partner organisations and artistic ensembles, we create diverse concert programmes that enrich Estonia’s musical culture and maintain the highest artistic standards.

Children and young people are an important focus of our work. Our educational school concert programme introduces pupils across Estonia to classical and contemporary music through a wide range of genres and engaging concert formats. As part of the UNESCO City of Music Tallinn programme, Eesti Kontsert has also been able to offer free school concerts for several years.

In autumn 2025, the televised competition “Klassikatähed” (“Classical Stars”) returned to television screens and concert halls after a five-year break, showcasing a new generation of talented young musicians. Eesti Kontsert also supports emerging artists through LIFT, a mentoring programme designed to help young musicians develop their professional careers.

Eesti Kontsert in numbers

2025
Eesti Kontsert organised 602 concerts: 371 school concerts and 231 season concerts. Our concerts attracted 172,775 visitors. We organised or co-produced five festivals across Estonia, four of them outside Tallinn.

2024
Eesti Kontsert organised 657 concerts: 406 school concerts and 251 season concerts. Our concerts attracted 151,116 visitors. We organised or co-produced eight festivals across Estonia, five of them outside Tallinn.

2023
Eesti Kontsert organised 804 concerts: 537 school concerts and 267 season concerts. Our concerts attracted 216,824 visitors. We organised eight festivals across Estonia, five of them outside Tallinn.

Every year Eesti Kontsert organizes numerous international music festivals, such as Festival TUBIN, International Piano Festival KLAVER, String Focus, Saaremaa Opera Festival, The Music of Seven Cities, etc.

All festivals

Eesti Kontsert holds concerts in schools and outdoors, in chamber halls all over Estonia, offers concert series for rural municipalities, music institutions and local concert arrangers/managers across the state.

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Eesti Kontsert manages the largest concert halls in Estonia – Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn, Vanemuine Concert Hall in Tartu, Pärnu Concert Hall and Jõhvi Concert Hall. All the aforementioned halls have excellent acoustics and capacity to seat approximately one thousand visitors per hall, are furnished with modern interiors and equipped with the latest technical equipment.

As a concert venue, the possible uses of Concert Halls are limited only by the organizer’s vision and imagination. Both the large casts of major symphonic works and pop musicians have felt equally at home on stage. The removable chair system of the Halls enables to transform the academic concert atmosphere to a opera house, conference facility, a concert hall or a ballroom. It is also convenient to hold banquets, fashion shows, concert-receptions, gala events, song contests, anniversaries, graduation festivities, exhibitions and charity events in the same Halls.

State Philharmonic Society of ESSR was founded on 4 February 1941. During the succeeding war years, the continuity of State Philharmonic Society was interrupted. Nevertheless, concert activities were going on until the threat of occupation forced most of performing musicians to leave their homes.

In November 1944, State Philharmonic Society of ESSR was restored with Paul Varandi, an actor and stage director as Director and Gustav Ernesaks as Artistic Director of the institution. The premises of the Philharmony were located in the Drama Theatre, Tallinn Art Hall, Kopli Cultural Centre, Nõmme Cinema and other locations in Tallinn.

In addition, Ernesaks’s male choir the Philharmonic Society incorporated the choir of Tallinn Female Society (stopped its activities in 1950) and Vladimir Sapozhnin’s jazz orchestra (in collaboration with conductors Erich Kõlar, Boris Kõrver, Leo Tauts, Richard Mölder, Peeter Saul, Feliks Mandre), brass band (conductors Voldemar Jakobson, Leopold Vigla, Aleksei Stepanov; reorganised into a pop orchestra in 1957). Auditions were also held for 60 performers with various profiles, ranging from magicians to bear tamers.

In the 1950s, the Philharmonic Society consisted of male choir, pop orchestra and folk dance ensemble, the soloists Ellen Laidre, Vera Poteshina, Nadezhda Anniko, Ines Rannap, Vladimir Sapozhnin, Roland Pikhof.

In 1972, the Philharmonic Society incorporated early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, founded by Andres Mustonen.
On 30 September 1989, the State Philharmony was renamed Eesti Kontsert (since 1997 a state concert institution). Oleg Sapozhnin continued as the Director, followed by Enno Mattisen in 1993 and Aivar Mäe in 1999. Marko Lõhmus served as Acting Director of Eesti Kontsert from 2009 to 2010. Jüri Leiten led Eesti Kontsert from 2010 to 2018, and Kertu Orro from 2019 to 2025.z

On 1 February 2014, the legal form of Eesti Kontsert was changed and State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert founded.

Since 24 November 2025, Eha Pank has been a member of the board of Eesti Kontsert.

Eha Pank – Member of the Board
Maarit Kangron – Artistic Director
Madis Kolk
Jaak Sooäär
Sten Lassmann
Jaan-Eik Tulve
Kristjan Hallik
Kertu Aksiim – Ministry of Culture
Kaspar Mänd
Indrek Leivategija
Anne Aavik – ERR (Estonian Public Broadcasting)

Confirmed by the Supervisory Board of the Eesti Kontsert on Septmeber 17, 2025, in Protocol No. 6.

Kertu Aksiim
Andres Kaljuste
Monika Peetson
Pille Pruunsild
Merle Põld – Chairman of the Board
Eva Saar