Artur Kapp

Artur Kapp was a Soviet Estonian composer, teacher, orchestral conductor, and public educator. He was born on February 28, 1878, in Suure-Jaani, Fellin County, Livonia Governorate, Russian Empire, in what is now Viljandi County, Estonia. His father, Joosep Kapp, was an organist and conductor.

Kapp graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, completing organ studies with Louis Homilius in 1898 and composition studies with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1900. After finishing the conservatory, he moved to Astrakhan, where he headed the local branch of the Russian Musical Society.

From 1904 to 1920 he served as director of the Astrakhan Music School, now the Mussorgsky Astrakhan Music College. In 1920 he was invited to work as a conductor at the Estonia Opera and moved with his family to Tallinn. From 1920 to 1924 he was a conductor at the Estonia Theatre, and from 1920 he also carried out teaching work. Between 1925 and 1943 he was a professor at the Tallinn Conservatory.

He was the author of the oratorio Job, written in 1930, the cantata To the Sun, five symphonies, organ concertos, and symphonic suites. He made a major contribution to the development of choral music. Among his students were Gustav Ernesaks and Eugen Aav.

Kapp was patriotic in his views. On February 24, 1950, he raised the Estonian flag over his house in Tallinn. According to the article, this was the only public case in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic between 1945 and 1986 in which the blue-black-white flag was raised, the person responsible was known, and no punishment followed.

He was awarded the title Honored Art Worker of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1945. In 1950 he received the Stalin Prize, second class, for his Fourth Symphony, the Youth Symphony, composed in 1948 and dedicated to the Komsomol.

Artur Kapp died on January 14, 1952, in Suure-Jaani and was buried in the local cemetery. His Fifth Symphony-Cantata, Symphony of Peace, written in 1949-1951, was completed by his son and student, the composer Eugen Kapp. His nephew Villem Kapp was also among his pupils. His memory is preserved in Tallinn, where a street was named after him, and in Suure-Jaani, where a memorial museum for the composers Artur and Villem Kapp operates and annual music festivals are held in their honor.

Connections

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