Tartu hosts ninth international barrel organ summer days

Barrel organ players from Estonia and across Europe gathered in Tartu for the ninth International Barrel Organ Summer Days, ERR’s Klassikaraadio reported. Over three days, they performed open-air concerts and shows in Tartu’s city centre and old town, the Karlova district and at the Oskar Luts Museum in Palamuse.

The event organiser, Ingrid Kalev, said the summer days bring together the international barrel organ community. This year’s programme included a barrel organ procession in Tartu, in which players moved through the city while performing, rather than marching in a parade.

The programme also featured a distributed alley concert where visitors could touch the instruments and try playing them themselves. The oldest instrument brought to the festival is more than 100 years old and belongs to Arvo Haug in Estonia.

Kalev said Estonia’s barrel organ community had grown and now included eight or nine active players. Some instruments are still awaiting restoration. Germany has the largest number of players, while Finland has around 40 instruments and about 10 active players, she said.

Playing the barrel organ is not an inexpensive hobby because the instruments are costly and require time to practise, Kalev said. She described it as a mood-lifting activity because the instruments produce light and airy sounds, making it difficult to remain gloomy. Playing also activates the arm and chest muscles.

Kalev discovered barrel organs in 2012 and obtained her own instrument three years later. She said the repertoire ranges from folk songs to opera music and choral melodies, with church music also forming a powerful and beautiful part of it. Her particular favourites are works by Estonian composers, as well as classical, opera and operetta music.