The founder of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conductor Tõnu Kaljuste is a major exponent of Estonian contemporary music. He has also been active as a conductor outside Estonia and has a large repertory of music from Russia and Western Europe, in addition to his native country. Kaljuste was born on August 28, 1953, in Tallinn, Estonia, then part of the Soviet Union. His father, Heino Kaljuste, was the conductor of the Ellerhein Chamber Choir, and the younger Kaljuste had his first musical experiences as a singer in that group. His mother was a broadcast journalist. Kaljuste attended the Tallinn Music High School, graduating in 1971. He attended the Tallinn Conservatory, studying conducting with Jüri Variste and Roman Matsov, and prior to his graduation in 1976, he had already taken over direction of the Ellerhein Chamber Choir from his father, later renaming it the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and wangling money from the Soviet Estonian administration to turn it into a full-time professional ensemble. Kaljuste went on for further training in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia), returned to Estonia, and taught from 1978 to 1980 at the Tallinn Conservatory. He also began a 17-year stint at the Estonian National Opera in 1978. In 1980, he signed a letter of protest against Soviet efforts to minimize the use of the Estonian language and against the repressive treatment of demonstrators advocating for the rights of an Estonian punk rock band. That year, he won the 1980 Béla Bartók Choral Competition for conductors. After Estonia became independent in 1991, Kaljuste became better known in the West. In 1992, he made the first of many recordings for the ECM label, leading the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir on the album Veljo Tormis: Forgotten Peoples. He formed the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra the following year. From 1994 to 2000, Kaljuste conducted the Swedish Radio Choir, recording Rachmaninov's Vespers with that group in 1995. He was also the conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir from 1998 to 2000, and recorded an album of works by Robert Heppener with that group for the Donemus label in 1999. Since then, Kaljuste continued to conduct the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and has been active as a freelance conductor, continuing to perform with the groups with which he had been associated, as well as other ensembles. His 2012 recording of Arvo Pärt's Adam's Lament on ECM, with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Latvian Radio Choir, and Riga Sinfonietta, won a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance. His work is not restricted to choral music; his 2018 recording of Arvo Pärt's four symphonies with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra won an International Classical Music Award. Kaljuste returned in 2023 on ECM with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, conducting Tormis' Reminiscentiae. ~ James Manheim, Rovi