“Tormis Variations” does not seek nostalgia but a living connection with the contemporary sound world through the interpretation of young musicians.

How does Tormis sound when his music begins to speak to our time?

Tormis’s folk song–based music enters into dialogue with contemporary jazz and improvisation. The result is a sonic conversation where primal depth and modern freedom listen to each other. Each concert is a new dialogue, a new response, a new variation — music that continues to live and breathe.

“Tormis didn’t write down the stories of nations for preservation, but to translate human experience into sound that lives on. Our goal is to continue that conversation with him — especially in the very places where his musical perception was born,” says the project’s musical director Aarne Saluveer.
That is why it is especially meaningful to create this dialogue around All Souls’ Day.

The concert series “Tormis Variations” takes place from November 2 to 9, bringing Tormis’s music back to the roots of his life and creative journey

Sun, Nov 2 at 18:00 – Kuusalu Church: The cradle of Tormis’s early years, where his perception of the world began.
Fri, Nov 7 at 19:00 – Viljandi St. Paul’s Church: The heart of Estonian traditional music, where Tormis’s spirit lives on through a new generation of musicians.
Sat, Nov 8 at 19:00 – St. John’s Church, Tallinn: The birthplace of many of Tormis’s works and a center of Estonian jazz.
Sun, Nov 9 at 18:00 – Vigala St. Mary’s Church: The setting of Tormis’s early school years, where his father served as a parish clerk and the sounds of childhood took root.

A Dialogue Between Tormis’s Music and Jazz

On stage: Maarja Aarma (vocals), Karl Madis Pennar (guitar and double bass), and Mikk Kaasik (keyboards), joined by the Estonian TV Girls’ Choir, conducted by Aarne Saluveer.

Maarja Aarma is known for her deeply emotional voice and versatile arrangements that bring folk material into a contemporary setting.
Karl Madis Pennar is a multifaceted chamber and improvisational musician and composer whose playing blends acoustic sensitivity with jazz freedom.
Keyboardist and composer Mikk Kaasik bridges classical and modern sound languages through his distinctive timbre and harmony.
The Estonian TV Girls’ Choir adds the primal breath and choral depth of Tormis’s music, while Aarne Saluveer weaves all these soundscapes into one living dialogue with the spirit of Tormis.

“For me, the challenge was to find a fresh approach to Tormis’s ancient soundscapes — to create an addition to the four-part choral texture using tuned axe (E) and drum (G) rhythms, preserving Tormis’s sharp and archaic sound language while adding our own jazz-like, modern pulse,”
says Karl Madis Pennar about his arrangement of “Sampo Tagumine” (Forging of the Sampo).

The concerts are structured as conversations between two sound worlds — Tormis’s original music and its contemporary jazz reinterpretations.
Improvisation, vocal motifs, and electronic textures create a new space where the breath of folk song and the sound of today complement one another. Each venue gives its own voice to this dialogue — the church’s resonance, the breath of human voices, and the sound of silence itself become music.

The concert series is part of the celebration of Veljo Tormis’s 95th anniversary, organized in collaboration with the Veljo Tormis Virtual Centre, and supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

Tickets and more information: https://piletikeskus.ee/et/s/tormise-variatsioonid

Photo: Estonian TV Girls’ Choir. Kaupo Kikkas