Ants Soots

Ants Soots is best known as the chief conductor of the Estonian National Male Choir (RAM). He has led this ensemble in numerous acclaimed concerts at home and abroad, including throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Soots has also conducted the choir on a celebrated Virgin Classics CD of Sibelius cantatas, which received a Grammy award in 2004 for Best Choral Performance. Soots has conducted numerous other choirs, as well, including the Estonian Radio Mixed Choir, Estonian Academy of Sciences' Male Choir, and Male Choir of the Tallinn University of Technology. As for repertory, Soots is strongly identified with the choral music of Estonia, showing a preference for the works of Rudolf Tobias and especially for those of Veljo Tormis. His repertory also takes in an array of classical, folk, and traditional works. Soots serves on the faculty of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater. Ants Soots was born in Estonia on February 19, 1956. He initially studied mathematics at the Tartu State University until 1974, and from 1974-1978, he studied choral conducting with, among other notables, Alo Ritsing at the Heino Eller Tartu Music School. Soots had advanced studies until 1983 at the Estonian Academy of Music, where his teachers included Ants Üleoja. In 1988 Soots joined the faculty at the Estonian Academy, where he has since taught choral conducting. Soots began conducting the Estonian National Male Choir in 1991, and three years later was appointed the ensemble's chief conductor. Soots served as the artistic director of the (Estonian) Song Festival in 1999. That same year he was given the Gustav Ernesaks Choral Music Award and in 2003 received the Order of the White Star, Fifth Class, by the Estonian government. While these awards are important, especially in Estonia, their significance pales somewhat alongside those he received in 2004: besides the much coveted Grammy, he captured his second Estonian Folk Culture Capital Foundation Award (the first was in 2002), was given the annual prize of the Estonian Cultural Endowment, and was named Conductor of the Year by the Estonian Choral Society. In 2009 Soots served as the general manager of the Song Festival. Among Soots' more acclaimed recordings with the Estonia National Male Choir are those in his ongoing series of works by Tormis on Alba: three volumes of Visions of Estonia were issued in 2003-2006, and Vision of Kaleva appeared in 2010.
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