EMAJÕE LAULIKUD

About Us

The female choir „Emajõe Laulikud“ from Tartu, with its conductor Vilve Maide has been singing together  since 2003. In relatively short time period the choir has become one of the leading female choirs in Estonia. This choir of about 60 people can be characterised as full of joy, personality and courage to act differently and seeking  innovative pathways. Since 2018 Meelis Kesperi has assisted the conductor.

The repertoire of “Emajõe Laulikud” is in permanent development, containing songs from both Estonian and foreign authors, from arrangements of national songs to opera choirs, from church music to pop-music and, naturally, the evergreens of Estonians female choirs and our Song Festivals.

The choir enjoys both singing together and doing things together. The rehearsals take place every Monday at the Ministry of Education and Research. The choir joins mostly young women, who wish, in addition to making beautiful music together, to be active in social life. To further develop the quality of Estonian singing culture we set for ourselves higher and higher targets like performing difficult musical pieces more professionally and commissioning new original music from contemporary composers. From another side, we also are active in developing and enriching the possibilities of entertaining and innovative music.

Competions and prizes

  • March 2005, Estonian Female Choirs’ Association contest, Tallinn, Estonia - the 2nd prize in category B of Estonian Female Choirs’ Association contest. At the same contest Vilve Maide was awarded the Prize for Young Conductor.
  • November 2008 “Ernesaks 100” song competition, Tallinn, Estonia - the 3rd  prize at “Ernesaks 100” song competition.
  • March 2012, song competition for female choirs devoted to Ester Mägi, Tallinn, Estonia - the 6th place in category A.
  • September 2012, "Festival of Songst to Virgin Mary", Narva, Estonia - the first prize
  • May 2013, Kaunas Cantat 2013, Kaunas, Lithuania -2 Gold Diplomas in modern and folk music categories.
  • April 2015, Estonian Female Choirs’ Association contest, Tallinn, Estonia -  the 4th place in category A
  • July 2015, 4th Florence International Choir Festival,Florence, Italy - 3th place in Category of Sacred Music and 3th place in Category Contemporary Music
  • June 2016, 7th International Krakow Choir Festival, Krakow, Poland - 2nd place in Category of Sacred music, Best Female Choir and Special Prize of Best Polish Song performed by foregin choir
  • May 2017, Šiauliai Cantat, 7th International Choir Festival and Competition in Lithuania - Silver Diploma in Category of Female Choir, Gold Diploma in Category of Folk music, Grand Prix Victory.
  • November 2018: International Choir Festival and Competition Varsovia Cantat 2018 – 1st prize in the category of equal voices.
  • April 2019: International Choir Festival and Competition Tallinn 2019. 4th place in the category of equal voices.
  • December 2019: International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music in Bratislava, Slovakia. Gold Diploma in the category of Female choirs, Gold diploma and first prize in the category of Folk music.
  • November 2023: International Choir Festival and Competition Lisbon Sings, Portugal. Gold Diploma in the category of equal voices (difficulty level I).

The choir has been participating in several interesting musical projects: Songs by Kulno Süvalep “My Most Wonderful Years 10” (2003); 50th anniversary concert of Peeter Volokonski  “Volkonsky Report” (2004), Tartu Music Days (2009), numerous charity concerts and festive occasions. In 2008 we successfully took part in TV-show “Battle of Songs”.

The year 2009 is remembered by our singers as the Year of Bringing the Fire: together with Tartu Male Choir "Akadeemiline Emajõgi" we brought the Song Festival Fire all the way through Estonia from Tartu to Tallinn, to the XXV Estonian Song Festival.

“Emajõe Laulikud” has been singing at XXIV and XXV Estonian Song Festivals, VI Festival of Nordic Student Choirs, Baltic Students Song and Dance Festival “Gaudeamus” and in many places all over Estonia. In June 2012 we helped to organise the Festival of Nordic and Baltic Male Choirs.

Over the last years we have been privileged to make music under different conductors (Tarmo Leinatamm, Toomas Vavilov, Marge Matson) and be the first to perform new original music from composers Kristo Matson, Peeter Volkonski, Toomas Lunge and Rein Rannap.