Eri Klas

b. 1939 (Tallinn) · d. 2016 (Tallinn)

Eri Klas (June 7, 1939–February 26, 2016) was a Soviet and Estonian conductor and music teacher. Born in Tallinn to a musical family, he studied violin at the Tallinn Children’s Music School. His mother, Anna Klas, was a pianist and teacher.

Klas graduated from the Tallinn Music College in 1959, specializing in choral conducting, and from the Tallinn Conservatory in 1964, where he studied with Gustav Ernesaks. He continued his training at the Leningrad Conservatory with Nikolai Rabinovich and at the Bolshoi Theatre with Boris Khaikin.

He began his career as an assistant conductor with the Estonian State Symphony Orchestra and also played percussion. From 1965 he worked as a conductor. He was chief conductor and artistic director of the Estonian Opera and Ballet Theatre in Tallinn from 1975 to 1994, later serving as its honorary conductor and, from 2005, as chair of its board. He conducted more than fifty operas.

Klas held leading posts with the Royal Swedish Opera, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Israel Sinfonietta in Beersheba. He was a principal guest conductor of the Finnish National Opera from 1990 to 2009. From 2003 he worked with Moscow’s Novaya Opera Theatre, serving as its chief conductor from 2006 to 2011 and as a guest conductor from 2013. He made his United States debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1991 and later conducted more than 100 orchestras in 40 countries, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. From 1999, he conducted at every Estonian Song Festival.

His work with young musicians included leading youth orchestras in several regions. He was a professor of orchestral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1993 to 1997 and later taught as a visiting professor at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. From 2002 to 2014 he was artistic director of the Tallinn Philharmonic, and from 2005 he led the Birgitta Festival, which he had initiated.

His operatic repertoire included Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and works by Verdi, Donizetti, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Bartók, and Bernstein. His concert repertoire included masses by Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven, oratorios by Handel, and requiems by Mozart and Verdi. His recordings included music by Alban Berg, Philip Glass, John Corigliano, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, and Eduard Tubin.

Klas received the title of People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR in 1978 and People’s Artist of the USSR in 1986. His honors included Estonian national culture awards in 1992, 1999, and 2013, the Music Council of Estonia award in 2009, and the Golden Mask award in 2014 for his contribution to theatre. He wrote The Conductor: Facing the Audience, published in 2006. He died in Tallinn and was buried at Rahumäe Cemetery.

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