Arvo Pärt

Celebrated as one of the greatest contemporary composers, Arvo Pärt (b. 1935, Estonia) got off to a rocky start under Communist rule. Winner of the 1963 USSR Young Composers' Competition, the neoclassical-influenced musician went through various phases (dodecaphonism, serialism, collages), creating controversy with his religiously-inspired Credo and Symphony No. 3. Despite censorship, he pursued his research and developed a style that he himself called "tintinnabuli" for the play of bells in his compositions. The series of medieval-inspired works Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, Fratres, Tabula Rasa and Spiegel im Spiegel saw the light of day between 1977 and 1978. Exiled to Vienna and then Berlin, Arvo Pärt is published by ECM, which releases his works such as Passio and Te Deum. Arvo Pärt's growing reputation reached out to fans of new age and minimalist music. In the 2000s, the composer returned to Estonia and continued to enrich a body of work played around the world with The Deers Cry and Symphony No. 4 (2008), followed by Adam's Lament (2012).