Organ Festival

Tallinn International Organ Festival has run since 1987. The City of Tallinn has been the main sponsor and the Festivals are one of the most important artistic events of the year. The main stage of the Festival is St. Nicolas Church, now functioning as the museum and the concert hall. It is situated in the heart of the Old Town, not far from the Town Hall Square. St. Nicolas Church holds a large amount of medieval art. One of the most unique exhibits of the church is a fragment of an original "Dance Macabre" (1446) by Bernt Notke from Lübeck. Besides St. Nicolas Church, concerts have been held in the other Tallinn churches and around Estonia. There are many unique organs in the Estonian churches. All these wonderful instruments have been sounding during the festivals.

The 14^th Tallinn International Organ Festival was held July 28 – August 08, 2000 and was dedicated to the greatest composer of the world history John Sebastian Bach. The opening day of the festival commemorated his death on July 28, 1750 with his main work -Matthew Passion performed by Latvian Radio Choir and Hortus Musicus academic orchestra conducted by Andres Mustonen. In the next ten days all the organ works by Bach were performed by European organists. The festival ended with Bach's Mass Bminor, performed by Stuttgart Chamber Choir with well-known soloists and the Baroque Orchestra conducted by Frieder Bernius. It was remarkable to hear to the Bach's last cantata -"Bauernkantata" performed twice in the Estonian Open Air Museum Rocca-al Mare, conducted by the founder of the Festival and its Artistic Director, Prof. Andres Uibo.

The Year of Bach will soon be over. The 15^th Tallinn International Organ Festival will be held on August 03-12, 2001 with the theme "Diverse Organ". Tallinn welcomes all organ lovers from the UBC cities to participate in mpre than 30 concerts that will be held during 15^th Organ Festival next year.