Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt, born in Paide in Estonia in 1935, is among the most performed living composers. He studied composition with Heino Eller in Tallinn and in his early works, among them Nekrolog (1960) and Credo (1968), used the modernist techniques of the time. In 1976, with the piano piece Für Alina, he arrived at the spare, bell-like style he calls tintinnabuli, which he has used ever since in works such as Fratres, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten and Spiegel im Spiegel. He left Estonia with his family in 1980 and lived for many years in Berlin before returning home. Much of his later music sets sacred texts.