The Theatre and Music Museum's book series is based on historical archival material in the museum's collections - memoirs, correspondence, diaries, unpublished articles, travelogues, photographs, drawings, postcards and more. These books provide the reader with the most authentic source of music and theatre history. The book launch was introduced by Kaisa Luik, Collective Curator of the Music Archives of the History Museum, and hosted by Meeta Vardja, the book's author.

Meeta is a PhD student and editor at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She has published articles in magazines Muusika and Sirp; annotations for concerts of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, festivals Klaaspärlimäng and Kratt, Estonian Record Productions recordings. Presentations at international conferences (IV International Doctoral Congress BJC IReMus, 2022; Polyphony of Song and Dance Festival Memories, 2023) and Estonian conferences (Annual Conference of the Estonian Research Centre of Excellence "Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Language and Culture", 2022).

"Companions of Tormis" is Meeta Vardja's first book publication, which took more than three years to prepare. Time-consuming communication with foreign archives and the descendants of the persons mentioned in the work led to the goal, because a fragment of Estonian music history has now been binded to a book. In the light of this work, Tormis can be seen as a bridge who enabled valuable cultural transfers between Finno-Ugric and Slavic peoples in the second half of the 20th century.
The book is bilingual (Estonian and Russian) and contains excerpts and photographic examples of Tormis's correspondence from 1964-1994 with his teachers, friends and important music figures.

Companions of Tormis. Elavik XXI
Compiled by: Meeta Morozov (Vardja)
Editors: Katre Scott-Hopkins and Juliana Sokolova
Designer: Kadi Pajupuu
Translation: Meeta Morozov (Vardja)
Paperback; 223 pages; in Estonian and Russian; dimensions: 15 x 18 cm
Published by SE&JS
Estonian History Museum Foundation 2024
Buy the book at the History Museum online store
Price €15.00

Photos of the event: Mart Laul