Estonian Music Week’s Livestream Series

This autumn Estonian Music Week (EMW) started a Livestream Concert Series to commemorate Tartu College’s 50th Anniversary. The first concert took place during the Tartu College 50 online celebration. The event culminated with a rooftop concert by the beloved local singer-songwriter Kaili Kinnon. Her smoky soul pop was a perfect fit with the sunset over the Toronto skyline.

The second livestream moved to the basement, to the VEMU archival depository, where experimental multigenre producer, turntablist, vocalist, and instrumentalist Erik Laar mixed old diaspora music with more contemporary tunes. About 500 people joined the concert via Facebook.

The live stream series consisted not only of music, but also included Marcus Kolga’s interesting talk “Tallinn Calling: Jazz, Punk, Rock n’ Roll and Youth Culture in The Soviet Union.”

At the beginning of December, one more live stream was organized, this time featuring a duo called Honeypaw, who live in one of the suites of Tartu College. Its members are Jurgita Žvinklytė from Lithuania, and Matti Palonen, who is of Finnish heritage. Their sound is steeped in traditional Lithuanian and Finnish musical and literary motifs. Honeypaw uses Lithuanian sutartinė songs which includes overlapping multiple rhythms and melodies of the same length. The duo’s music also draws from the Finnish epic Kalevala and multicultural Toronto. Their main instrument is the Finnish jouhikko (lyre). The concert was organized in collaboration with the Finnish Studies Program at the University of Toronto and acknowledged Finnish Independence Day on December 6th.

In addition to the partners and sponsors, VEMU wants to thank the youthful and inspiring EMW team, Sebastian Buccioni and Elis Jaansoo as well as their volunteer film crew, for making all these events possible! You can follow the EMW activities from Facebook or by subscribing to their e-mail newsletter www.facebook.com/EstonianMusicWeek