The third edition of Tallinn Music Week will celebrate Tallinn being the European Capital of Culture! During its third edition, Tallinn Music Week will present a lineup of almost 150 bands and artists from 10 different countries. The festival programming over three nights (24-26 March) will cover all styles of music.
It is finally the year when Tallinn will proudly hold the title of European Capital of Culture, with Tallinn Music Week being one of its highlight events for music fans both in Estonia and abroad.
Tallinn Music Week is a showcase festival and a music industry networking event that started out in 2009. Having partnered up with the European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 and the country’s very own brainchild, Skype, the event is a strong new initiative with the aim of integrating the Estonian music scene effectively into the European music industry circuit, thus providing a new platform for the country’s best talent to spread further from Estonian borders.
Some encouraging success stories are already taking shape with last year’s Skype Award winner, Iiris; fire-folkers, Svjata Vatra; lovely jazz chanteuse, Kadri Voorand; the beat master, Bert On Beats; indie-rockers, Aides; hardcore outfit, Goresoerd; and the mysterious bedroom synth-songstress, Maria Minerva, all stirring up levels of excitement outside Estonia. The viking-metal masters, Metsatöll, and the edgy Estonian bubble-goth princess, Kerli, have both made their mark already.
During its third edition, Tallinn Music Week will present a lineup of almost 150 bands and artists from 10 different countries. Of these acts 124 of them are Estonian, 11 from Finland, 3 from Latvia, 2 from Russia and 1 each from Lithuania, Sweden, UK, Canada, Japan and France. For the first time the festival opened up an applications round, which resulted in 280 applications received from across the world.
The festival programming over three nights (24-26 March) will cover all styles of music from indie-rock and electronic to metal, folk, jazz, contemporary classical and, for the first time this year, a special night of classical music at the National Estonia Concert Hall. The showcase venues will include the festival’s hot spot, Von Krahl, with a programme running over three nights and two floors. Tallinn’s biggest live venue, Rock Café, will open up two halls to host the Tuborg Green Club with electro-pop on Friday and a special choice of Universal-signed artists on Saturday. Metal club, Tapper, will hold a three-night metal fest of its own while dark electronica club, RockStars, also has a good dose of metal in store for Friday. The medieval Black Brotherhood Guild House (Mustpeade Maja) is to present fresh indie-pop on Friday and contemporary classical music on Saturday. Tallinn’s pride of modern cutting edge architecture, the Rotermanni Centre, will be open for folk and jazz while club Korter will host the Estonian hip-hop stars as well as the festival after-party on Saturday. The lovely locale, Juuksur (Hairdresser’s), will present psychedelic folk while the brand new “must-go-to” venue, F-Hoone at the Telliskivi creative centre, will present the best of dance music. To top it all off, the Estonia Concert Hall will host the brightest of classical music.
As always, Tallinn Music Week will bring along around 100 international delegates from throughout Europe, including showcase-festival programmers, promoters, record labels and publishers. There is more interest than ever in the Eastern European front so the mix of delegates will definitely be as exciting as possible. Tallinn Music Week’s conference will discuss the present and the future of the music business with the focus on new business models and innovative artist management. In cooperation with the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and a newly formed Estonian Music Development Centre there will be an annual music managers training programme running throughout the year to take the initiative of supporting and training young Estonian music managers even further.
Tallinn Music Week dates are:
24th March – the opening night
25th and 26th March – seminars and showcase-festival
Check schedules and artists and find out who else is coming: www.tallinnmusicweek.ee
Register as a delegate: www.tallinnmusicweek.ee/register.php
Buy tickets:
In Estonia:
http://www.piletilevi.ee/eng/tickets/festival/tallinn_music_week_2011 Latvia:
http://www.bilesuserviss.lv/lat/concerts/festivals/tallinn_music_week_2011 Lithuania:
http://bilietupasaulis.lt/lit/bilietai/festivaliai/tallinn_music_week_2010 Finland:
http://www.piletilevi.ee/fin/liput/festival/tallinn_music_week_2011 and in LippuRex and Kamppi Centre info desk
Our partners say:
Sten Tamkivi (Skype Estonia):Skype honors its Estonian roots by maintaining its largest office in Tallinn. There, and elsewhere in the world, our success rests on giving talented people the freedom to do inspiring things. In our case, inspiration happens to turn into software. But we feel a certain kinship with ambitious homegrown musicians, fellow torchbearers of Estonian creative arts. Which is why we’ve partnered with Tallinn Music Week — to help give wings to world-class Estonian music as it seeks to make its mark beyond our borders.
Jaanus Rohumaa (Tallinn2011): Tallinn Music Week is one of the events in our programme that we have been a partner to from the very beginning. Having witnessed and supported the festival’s birth we believe that in 2011, when Tallinn will have the honour of being the European Capital of Culture, Tallinn Music Week has become one of Estonia’s key music events that will make Estonian music scene an integral part of the international music market. We are proud to have been able to support this brave initiative, determined to develop our country’s music market and bring it to a whole new level. We believe Tallinn Music Week will flourish for years to come and help many talented Estonian acts become known internationally.
Our delegates say:
Robert Meijerink (EuroSonic): The general standard of bands was higher than expected. From good singer songwriters, folk/roots acts to original electronic pop/punk acts. Tallinn is a beautiful place to take a dive into the Estonian music scene — great venues and warm atmosphere in beautiful surroundings. Tallinn Music Week has a huge potential to become the ultimate platform and gate to the Estonian and maybe the Baltic music scene.
Paulina Ahokas (Finnish Music Export): Tallinn Music Week was a really efficient way to get an overview of what is going on in the Estonian music scene, see some of the potential artists, meet with their representatives and discuss future opportunities. This event also made me realize what an amazing talent pool and enthusiastic atmosphere there is in Estonia, and I am convinced that the event will even further activate local co-operation and ambition!
Ville Kilpeläinen (Fullsteam): I think TMW has already in its second year established itself as a high quality boutique event with great potential. Tallinn is a great place for a showcase festival such as TMW: the city itself is beautiful, the concert venues are walking-distance and the clubs were full of enthusiastic festival-goers. TMW is a great platform for Estonia to brand itself internationally through music, and also for Estonian (and other Baltic) acts to get recognized outside of their native countries.
Martin Elbourne (Great Escape, Glastonbury): I thought the level of organization and hospitality Tallinn Music Week provided was superb. Tallinn’s concert venues were great. It was one of the most enjoyable conference showcase events I have been to (and I have been to a few!).
Paul Cheetham (Popkomm):The Estonian scene continues to grow and is still extremely cool. The venues are plentiful and unique, the audience is supportive and beautiful, and the artists are genuinely talented and exciting to watch. Tallinn Music Week is an essential opportunity for a lot of these artists to meet some very useful people who can help them with their music and careers.