Littlemore Tractus

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir & Christopher Bowers-Broadbent

An ARVO PÄRT…and a Littlemore event

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Christopher Bowers-Broadbent give a day-time performance of Pärt’s Littlemore Tractus especially for the Littlemore community. The world premiere of this work was held in St Mary & St Nicholas Church in 2001, and coincided with the 200th anniversary of the birth of the priest, poet, and educationalist Saint John Henry Newman. The words come from a sermon Newman preached in 1843 in the village of Littlemore entitled ‘Wisdom and Innocence’.

About the artists

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) is one of the best-known Estonian music ensembles in the world. The EPCC was founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, who was the artistic director and chief conductor for twenty years. In the years 2001–2007, the English musician Paul Hillier took over. Between the years 2008–2013 the artistic director and chief conductor was Daniel Reuss and in the years 2014–2021 Kaspars Putniņš. Since August 2021 the artistic director and chief conductor is Tõnu Kaljuste.

The repertoire of the choir extends from Gregorian chant and baroque to the music of the 21st century, with a special focus on the work of Estonian composers, such as Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Galina Grigoryeva, Toivo Tulev, Tõnu Kõrvits, Helena Tulve, and introducing their output to the world. Each season the choir gives about 60–70 concerts both in Estonia and abroad.

Tõnu Kaljuste is a world-renowned choir and orchestra conductor. His most historic achievement to date is the Grammy for Best Choral Performance for the Arvo Pärt album Adam’s Lament in 2014. His recordings have had a number of Grammy nominations in various categories from opera (David and Bathsheba of the Norwegian composer Ståle Kleiberg) to symphonic music. In 2019 he won the International Classical Music Award for the recording of Arvo Pärt’s symphonies with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra.

Kaljuste’s recordings have won several other prestigious prizes such as the Cannes Classical Award (1999), Diapason d’Or (2000), Edison Musical Award (2000) and Classic BRIT Award (2003). He has recorded for the ECM Records, Virgin Classic, BIS and Caprice Records labels.

Tõnu Kaljuste is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and a recipient of the ABC International Music Award of Japan and the Robert Edler Prize for choral music.