Tallinn Music Week announces performers, festival passes on sale now

March 29-31, 183 bands and artists from 13 countries will take over Tallinn for three days and nights to perform at Tallinn Music Week – the biggest talent festival in the Baltics. The grandest Tallinn Music Week so far will bring together the exciting and promising acts from Estonia and neighbouring countries to step up on 27 stages across central Tallinn. In addition to the established festival venues, TMW will surprise you with unexpected experimental environments – the “city stages”, where music lovers can enjoy special improvisational performances free of charge.

Within the city stage programme music lovers will have exclusive access to performances at the international headquarters of Skype, the suite of Nordic Hotel Forum, and the library corner of an Estonian LHV bank. Concerts will also take place at a wide range of spaces that include the tastemakers’ favourite record store Biit, the cosy café Must Puudel, the Gallery of Design and Architecture, and the children’s museum Miia-Milla-Manda. The Apollo bookstore, located at Solaris Centre, and the atrium space of Viru Keskus department store, will host an Estonian Music and Design Café equipped with headphones and furniture designed in Estonia to let everyone comfortably enjoy some cherry-picked homegrown tracks.

Daytime city stage shows will be free of charge. Festival passes allow access to all festival venues, and will be on sale starting from today.

The opening night of the festival on March 29th, held in the Rock Cafe, will host the debut album presentation of quirky singer-songwriter Iiris, with special guests Rubik, an acclaimed indie band from Finland.

There are 33 international performers from 13 countries playing this year’s festival programme. From Finland come Husky Rescue, Jaakko&Jay, The New Tigers, and Zebra and Snake, Lithuanian singer-songwriter Alina Orlova, Latvian art-pop sensation Instrumenti, Motorama from the Russian underground, Polish rock band Fonovel, the British sound wizard Napoleon IIIrd, Austrian indie-folkers Diver, Doug Tielly from Canada and a well known Latvian countertenorSergejs Jēgers are just a few to mention.

Among the 150 Estonian artists on the lineup you’ll find our latest Pop Idol Liis Lemsalu, the talented singer-songwriter Vaiko Eplik, masters of deep house Rulers of the Deep, rock bandBedwetters, a folk-singer-songwriter Mari Kalkun and the beloved folk group Paabel. All this and more – doom duo Talbot have graced many European stages, and the talented young electronica wizard Sander Mölder will make an appearance. From a rich selection of Estonian composers,Mirjam Tally and Tatjana Kozlova’s work will feature. Two highlights among many from the classical music programme, housed at the Estonia Concert Hall, will be mezzo-soprano Helen Lokuta and pianist and composer Rein Rannap.

As always, the festival programme features a full array of music styles and genres, put together by a team of key Estonian festivals and music promoters. We’re proud to have curators from Estonia’s biggest outdoor festival Rabarock, the respected jazz festival Jazzkaar (who proudly celebrate their 23th birthday this year) and Viljandi Folk who are largely responsible for cultivating such a vibrant and varied folk and world music scene in Estonia. The contemporary classical music night is presented by the Estonian Composers’ Union and Estonian Music Days festival. The newest edition to the programme, the classical music showcase, is the fruit of a collaboration between the Estonian Music Development Centre, the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians and the Pille Lill Music Fund. The significant local indie-zine Rada7.ee will present a Friday night party at a legendary old cinema, formerly called Helios and now known as a cool indie-kids party spot Hoov (the courtyard).

There are also some exciting collaborations with international festivals and events this year. Positivus, the biggest festival in the Baltics, will present their own showcase at cinema “Sõprus”. UK indie label Brainlove Records teams up with international management & music consultancy Projekta and respected local indie-event promoter Odessa Pop to host a Friday night programme of emerging UK and Estonian talent, with Projekta and TMW having also founded an ongoing artist exchange programme that presents Estonian bands in London. And finally, legendary Finnish indie label Stupido co-hosts a must-see night with the World Clinic Estonian record store.

The TMW festival pass will give you access to all key venues of Tallinn – for three nights in a row, ticket holders will overrun the town’s best live venues and clubs, cool basement bars in 15th century houses, renovated Soviet-time cinemas, opulent theatres and cosy cafés and, for the first time, the grand Kultuurikatel (trans: “culture power plant”). This imposing old factory building will soon to become a vibrant creative centre of Tallinn, brimming with up and coming talent to watch.

As a new initiative, Tallinn Music Week has also teamed up with an internationally recognised start-up event Garage48. A special event Garage48 Tallinn Music will occur a week before the festival, with the aim of generating innovative music products and sound-related smartphone or web solutions.

“We want to take a step forward towards our local music fans and potential audiences by bringing music even closer to them,” comments Tallinn Music Week organiser Helen Sildna. “Recent Estonian success stories like Ewert and the Two Dragons have proven both the need and the desire for good new music. It is indeed our job as a music industry to make Estonian music available to people in new and innovative ways. This is the idea behind both of the new additions to the festival this year – our city stage programme, and also Garage48 Tallinn Music – we want good music to reach people better.”

Tallinn Music Week 2012, the fourth edition of the ever-growing festival, will take place on March 29-31. As always, the aim of the music industry conference and new talent showcase festival is to present the most exciting and current Estonian and regional  music, to introduce our strongest artists to international music press and industry, and to help local music entrepreneurs expand their activities to foreign markets. The TMW conference will take place on 30th and 31st of March 2012 in Nordic Hotel Forum conference centre, in co-operation with Estonian Music Development Centre.

Tallinn Music Week is thankful to the supporters and partners:
Nordic Hotel Forum, Skype, LHV Bank, Tuborg Music, Kultuurikatel, Estonian Air, Tallink, Hansabuss, Viru Keskus, Anne & Stiil, Postimees, ERR, Garage48, Velvet, Aku Collective, Eventech, RGB, Tolm Stuudio, Estonian Music Development Centre, EAS, the Ministry of Culture, Tallinn Culture and Heritage Department, Cultural Endowment, Tallinn City Enterprise Department, and The British Council.

More info:

www.tallinnmusicweek.ee
www.facebook.com/tallinnmusicweek
info@tallinnmusicweek.ee

Tallinn Music Week 2012:
27 stages
183 artists from 13 countries
33 foreign artists
52 artists perform at city stages