Visit to the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia

Looking back at 2023 I find that one of my most pleasant memories is my visit to the Arvo Pärt Centre in the middle of June. My husband and I spent a couple of vacation days in Riga and on our return to Tallinn (and eventually to Stockholm by ferry) we made a short detour to Laulasmaa, where the Centre is situated on a peninsula inside a beautiful pine forest, not far from the Baltic sea.

By pure chance we were lucky enough to meet the architect Enrique Sobejano from Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, which won the international competition in 2014, and exchanged a few words with him. We were however not so lucky as to see Arvo Pärt himself, although he lives not far from the Centre.

Karin Röngelep, archivist at the Centre, gave us a very interesting and insightful guided tour with many personal comments. Unfortunately, we did not meet the two librarians Toomas Schvak and Anneli Kivisiv, both of them members of IAML, but we were able to admire the elegant and spacious library with the exclusive collection of books and scores.

The visit to the Arvo Pärt Centre was for me almost a meditative experience. I found that the building itself is in total harmony with Pärt’s music – reduced, spiritual and balanced. There is also a wonderful correspondence between the building and its natural surroundings.

I would like to encourage you to visit the informative website of the Arvo Pärt Centre. It is a source of pride for me that we have IAML members in so many fascinating places around the world.

Let me just finish by mentioning, as an aside, that Arvo Pärt was awarded the Swedish Polar Music Prize in 2023. Perhaps that was the reason why the Centre was invaded by a choir from Stockholm just when we were about to leave.