Tag Archives: tallinn

This week: Seattle singers to perform in Tallinn, Tartu, and Riga

Posted on 16 March 10 | 1 Comment

The University of Washington Chamber Singers and Chorale is currently en route to Tallinn from Seattle to present a series of choral concerts in Estonia and Latvia. The 75 singers, directed by UW music professors Giselle Wyers and Geoffrey Boers, will deliver five lively performances during their one-week Baltic tour.

The tour will begin this Saturday in Tallinn’s acoustically splendid Niguliste Museum (pictured), a rebuilt and converted Gothic church in the old town. It will include stops in Tartu and Riga before winding up next Wednesday in Tallinn’s 16th century House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads.

The complete schedule follows.

  • Saturday, March 20, 12:00 — Niguliste Museum, Tallinn (hosted by Vox Populi)
  • Sunday, March 21, 10:00 — Jaani Church, Tallinn
  • Sunday, March 21, 17:00 — University Aula, Tartu (hosted by HaleBopp Singers)
  • Monday, March 22, 19:00 — Riga (hosted by Riga Technical University Men’s Choir)
  • Wednesday, March 24, 19:00 — Mustpeade Maja (House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads), Tallinn (hosted by Revalia)

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Events, News

Tagged , , , , ,

Estonia launches a global movement

Posted on 28 January 10 | 1 Comment

The hottest new Estonian export is not a product or a service. It is the deceptively simple idea that, if you make it fun, and create a sufficiently groovy vibe around it, you can mobilize huge numbers of people to clean up massive amounts of illegally-dumped garbage — all in one day. The concept, perhaps better described as a movement, is called Let’s Do It!

Estonia first “did it” almost two years ago, effectively demonstrating the concept on the 3rd of May, 2008. The country mobilized 50,000 volunteers to clean up 10,000 tons of garbage: trash that had been dumped illegally in forests and meadows, along roadsides and riverbeds, all over the country.

It took a lot of planning. For months beforehand, volunteers had crisscrossed the country on foot with GPS-enabled cell phones to map the illegally-dumped garbage. Then they created an effective marketing buzz around the project, getting politicians and celebrities involved, and succeeded in achieving something quite remarkable: they made garbage collection cool.

Let's Do It! volunteers demonstrate an uncanny enthusiasm for their work

Now word has spread. A conference held in Tallinn last weekend attracted eight countries: Slovenia, Portugal, Romania, India, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The movement has put up a website. And they’ve attracted the notice of media outlets as far afield as France, India, and Singapore.

So pick up some trash. You’ll be cool if you do.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Events, News, social

Tagged , , , , ,

Tallinn begins to prepare for its turn as European Capital of Culture

Posted on 3 November 09 | Leave a comment

European cultural capital logoBeginning in 1985, the European Commission has showcased one or more cities each year as the European Capital of Culture. The designation serves to foster arts and cultural programs and promote tourism in the chosen cities. Vilnius and Linz are this year’s Cultural Capitals, and for 2011 the anointed cities are Turku and Tallinn. (Riga’s turn will come in 2014.)

And crafty Tallinners have devised a way to stretch one year into two. Foundation Tallinn 2011, the organization charged with preparing the capital for its year in the limelight, has announced a competition entitled 52 Ideas and Surprises. Fifty-two grants of 10,000 kroons (US$ 938) each will be awarded to 52 “ideas that help turn Tallinn into more cultural, friendlier, brighter, happier, homely [I think they mean "homey"], unpredictable, and lovable place,” and one of these projects will be showcased during each week—of 2010.

The competition was launched yesterday and will be open through the end of November, so you have four weeks to develop and submit your ideas. Winners will be announced in December at www.52.ee.

A complete list of all past and future European Capitals of Culture can be found here.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Events, News, social

Tagged , , ,

Sakala’s revenge? New Tallinn landmark Solaris suffers embarrassment in opening week

Posted on 14 October 09 | Leave a comment

Solaris, Estonia’s brand new state-of-the-art shopping mall/conference center/entertainment complex, suffered a blow yesterday, just a week after its grand opening, when the ceiling of one of its movie theatres collapsed.

Fortunately nobody was inside at the time, and there were no injuries, but there was a lot of excitement — and a lot of questions about why the ceiling of a brand new facility should suddenly collapse. Shoddy workmanship? Unrealistically tight construction deadlines? Poor design? We hope that answers to these questions will be forthcoming.

Õhtuleht has a dramatic photo of the damage inside the auditorium here, and the Baltic Times has a detailed account of incident here.

The surviving tower of Sakala Center

The surviving tower of Sakala Center

Solaris occupies a prominent location in the center of Tallinn–the site once occupied by Sakala Center, the former home of the Estonian Business School (EBS) and the setting for much of the action in my book, Back on the Map. Sakala was only 7 years old when I first mounted its steps in 1992. It was in Sakala Center that I taught all of my EBS classes and lived many of the experiences that I relate in the book.

At the ripe old age of 21, alas, Sakala was torn down to make room for Solaris. More precisely, most of Sakala was torn down. The architects seemed to retain a soft spot for the former Communist Party Training Center: they preserved Sakala’s corner tower (pictured here) and incorporated it into the design of Solaris.

I provide a detailed description of Sakala Center on pp. 36-37 of my book, and there’s another good photo of the surviving Sakala tower here.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Events, News

Tagged , , , ,