Lepo Sumera
Lepo Sumera (8 May 1950 – 2 June 2000) was an Estonian composer and teacher. Considered one of Estonia's most renowned composers along with Heino Eller, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt,[1] he was also his country's Minister of Culture from 1988 to 1992 during the days of the Singing Revolution.[2]
He was born in Tallinn and studied with Veljo Tormis in his teens, and from 1968, with Heino Eller at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (then Tallinn State Conservatory). After Heino Eller's death in 1970, he studied with Heino Jürisalu, graduating in 1973. He then did postgraduate study at the Moscow Conservatory (1979–1982) with the Russian composer Roman Ledenev. Sumera first came to notice in 1972 with In Memoriam, an orchestral tribute to Eller. He went on to compose six symphonies and numerous chamber and vocal works which have been played by orchestras throughout North America and Europe as well as in Australia and Cuba.
In the late 1980s, Sumera became increasingly interested in electro-acoustic music. He founded the Electronic Music Studio at the Estonian Academy of Music in 1995 and served as its Director until 1999. One of his best known works in this genre is the multi-media Heart Affairs (1999) which used human heart sounds that were electronically transformed during performance accompanied by echocardiograph images, some from his own heart.
Lepo Sumera died of heart failure in Tallinn, aged 50. He was survived by his wife, the pianist Kersti Einasto whom he married in 1972, and three children.[3]
References
External links
- Huang, Mel: The Torchbearer Dies. Central Europe Review, Vol. 2, No 23, 12 June 2000. Accessed 17 February 2009.
- Rickards, Guy: Lepo Sumera: Estonian composer active in an age of musical and political freedom. The Guardian, 23 June 2000. Accessed 17 February 2009.
External links
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