Kruusmaa’s work performed at Tanglewood festival

Estonian composer Alisson Kruusmaa’s work Mesmeris was performed at the Tanglewood festival in Massachusetts, United States, ERR reported. The prestigious festival is held by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The work was selected for the festival’s young composers programme by this year’s curator, conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, who invited four young composers to take part. Kruusmaa said the selection was a major recognition.

According to Kruusmaa, Salonen said the selected composers stood out for their musical language, had gained international recognition and had developed individual voices. She said the comments encouraged her while working on a new large-scale composition and often doubting her own work.

The festival featured the work’s third version, completed in 2022 for marimba and piano. Kruusmaa originally wrote the piece for clarinet and piano in 2014, later creating a version for violin and piano.

Kruusmaa said the work suited Tanglewood’s distinctive concert setting, where the concert halls are closely connected with nature. She also praised the festival’s professional organisation and said the performers had thoroughly prepared the piece before the first rehearsal.

At the festival, Kruusmaa also met Salonen, who greeted her in Estonian and discussed Estonian conductors and the differences between Finnish and Estonian. She described him as knowledgeable and friendly.

In addition to hearing her own work, Kruusmaa attended other festival concerts. She was particularly impressed by the audience’s concentration on contemporary music and its response to the works.

Kruusmaa said she had previously viewed Tanglewood as almost unreachable, imagining it as a place where great music happened. The festival proved more direct and welcoming than she had expected.

After the concert, members of the Estonian community in the audience surprised her with flowers. Kruusmaa said she was the only composer that day to receive flowers.