On Sunday, 5 February, the Estonian Choral Association announced the winners of the annual awards for choral and wind music at the Estonia Concert Hall. The Supporter of the Year 2022 award was presented to the City of Tallinn as last year, as the city  provided substantial support for organizing the 1st Tallinn Youth Choirs Festival, supporting the activities of the Finnish Choral Association and other choir concert projects.

"Recognition is always a pleasure and reward, especially when it comes to actions that you take for granted”, said Deputy Mayor Kaarel Oja, expressing his gratitude. “As a city of music, we have a responsibility to the sector, including choral music, and of course we make an effort. At the same time, it is clear that Tallinn has more opportunities than smaller municipalities, and in the long run, there must be more support for cultural activities, either directly through the state budget or through municipal budgets,” added Oja. 

 

According to the Estonian Choral Association, without the support of the City of Tallinn, many of the association events would not have taken place. In cooperation with the city, the choirs have been organizing for years a series of church concerts in the Swedish-Mihkli Church, the "Cantus Revaliensis" concert series in the Hopneri Maja, and the concert series KoosKõla in the Tallinn Philharmonic Mustpeade Maja.

 

In 2022, a large-scale grant from the UNESCO City of Music programme was added to the 1st Tallinn Festival of Youth Choirs, which took place from 14-16 October 2022 and could not have taken place without funding from the City. This allowed the festival to use large venues (EMTA Concert and Theatre Hall, Russian Cultural Centre and Tallinn Secondary School of Science) and to keep the participation fee low enough to be accessible to all young people. Nearly 800 young choral singers took part in the festival.

 

The City of Tallinn also supports the organization of the international choir festival "Tallinn ...", which takes place every year and has grown into a major high-level festival. The choirs are important participants in many of Tallinn's events, including the Tallinn Old Town Days, the Tallinn Maritime Days, the Town Hall Christmas Market, Independence Day, etc.