Tui Hirv

Singer and musicologist Tui Hirv was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1984. Tui Hirv graduated from Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with a BA degree in singing in 2007 and MA in musicology in 2009. From an early age and until moving to Iceland in 2013 she was very active in Estonia’s vivid and highly professional scene of choral music. For a period of time she was a member of some of the most renowned vocal groups such as Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Vox Clamantis. Both ensembles have extensive international reach and regularly record albums for leading labels such as ECM New Series and Harmonia Mundi. Over time they have placed emphasis on the music of Arvo Pärt, their fellow Estonian and one of the most performed composers at a global scale.

Tui sings lead in Pärt’s L’Abbé Agathon for choir and chamber orchestra on the 2014 ECM release of Adam’s Lament. Led by EPCC’s founding conductor Tõnu Kaljuste, the album received the Grammy Award for best choral performance. Contemporary chamber music plays no less a part in Tui’s artistic profile. While in Estonia, she worked with new music ensembles and occasionally premiered pieces written for her by local composers. Tui’s collaboration with her composer husband Páll Ragnar Pálsson has been especially fruitful, resulting in more than ten pieces for Tui as soloist and ensembles of varying scale. Together they have developed a distinctive tonal language, which this album proudly represents.

photo: from booklet ‘Atonement’ on Sono Luminus