Arvo Pärt Centre
Arvo Pärt Centre (Estonian: Arvo Pärdi Keskus) is a foundation responsible for maintaining the personal archive of classical composer Arvo Pärt and operating as an information centre on the composer and his works. The centre is located in the coastal village of Laulasmaa in Lääne-Harju Parish, Estonia, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) to the west from Tallinn. It was established in 2010 by the Pärt family. In October 2018 the new building of the centre, designed by Spanish architects Fuensanta Nieto and Enrique Sobejano from the architecture and design firm Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos, was opened to the public.
Abbreviation
APC (Estonian: APK)
2010
- Arvo Pärt
- Nora Pärt
- Michael Pärt
- Immanuel Pärt
Laulasmaa, Estonia
International
Government funding, donations, earned revenue
17 (2019)[2]
International Arvo Pärt Centre
History[edit]
Founding and early years[edit]
The idea to create a separate institution for the personal archive of Arvo Pärt arose from the need to ensure the composer permanent access to his collections and at the same time to prepare these collections for long-term preservation and for public research. The centre was established by Arvo Pärt and his family in 2010 when the composer had returned to Estonia after living in Germany since 1981.[3] It was originally named the International Arvo Pärt Centre (Estonian: Rahvusvaheline Arvo Pärdi Keskus), with 'international' dropped from the name in 2014.[4]
The Arvo Pärt Centre was founded in the village of Laulasmaa because at his return to Estonia Arvo Pärt had chosen this coastal location as his permanent place of residence. In 2009 a residential building was bought to house the archive and to serve as a future location of the centre. The house was later named Aliina after Arvo Pärt's first piece in tintinnabuli-technique, Für Alina (1976).[5] For the first eight years the main tasks of the centre were organising the archive, creating metadata and a digital information retrieval system.[3] Due to the preparatory stages of work and general lack of space the centre was in most part closed to the public until late 2018.
Functions[edit]
Archive, library, information centre[edit]
At the core of the Arvo Pärt Centre are the personal archive and the personal library of the composer. The majority of the archival materials are original documents from the composer’s family – handwritten documents related to his creative work date back to 1970s. Many earlier documents from 1950s to 1970s are currently located at other memory institutions of Estonia or in private hands but the Arvo Pärt Centre has either paper or digital copies of most of them. The most valuable items in the archive are Arvo Pärt's handwritten scores, sketches, schemes, and music diaries. Researchers can view lists of the archive content on the centre's web site but even digital materials are accessible only on location.[18]
The library contains more than 2,000 books from the personal collection of Arvo Pärt and his wife Nora. The composer's personal collection has two focuses – music and theology. The majority of books in the collection are on Orthodox theology and spirituality, which has been an important source of inspiration for Arvo Pärt. The library also collects and stores CDs with Arvo Pärt's music, printed scores of his works, and books about his life and music.[19]
Based on the personal collections in the centre and on close collaboration with the composer and his family the centre also operates as an international information centre on Arvo Pärt, making available the most authoritative and up-to-date information on his life and works.[3]
The first research conference organised in cooperation of the Arvo Pärt Centre and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre was planned for Arvo Pärt's 85th birthday in autumn 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic it was postponed for a year.[20] The conference took place on 15–16 October 2021 under the title Arvo Pärt – Texts and Contexts with presentations by several internationally known Pärt scholars like Peter J. Schmelz, Kevin Karnes, Jeffers Engelhardt, Toomas Siitan, etc.[21][22]
Music and films[edit]
The new building of the Arvo Pärt Centre houses also a concert hall with 150 seats, ideal for chamber music concerts.[23] The centre organises its own concerts as well as offers performing space for musicians not invited by the centre. The focus of the concert programme is on introducing musicians from Estonia and abroad who have had a close collaboration with Arvo Pärt over the years. In the first two seasons there have been concerts by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, countertenor David James from the Hilliard Ensemble, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis, and many others.[24]
Every August since 2011 the Arvo Pärt Centre has organised film evenings with a selection of films featuring Arvo Pärt's music. The activity has been conducted in collaboration with cinema Sõprus in Tallinn, however, after the opening of the new building in 2018 some screenings have been also organised at the premises of the centre.[25]
Publishing[edit]
Since 2014 the Arvo Pärt Centre has also published a number of books, most of them about Arvo Pärt's life and music, as well as an edition of his songs for children:
