Urmas Taniloo


Urmas Taniloo was born in 1953 in Tartu. He has studied music at the Tartu H. Eller Music School and Tallinn State Conservatoire, from where he graduated as organist and pianist in 1977 with Profs. Hugo Lepnurm and Ada Kuuseoks. Later on he took part in master classes of Hans Gebhard, Leo Krämer, José Gonzalez Uriol and Peter van Dijk.

Since 1978, Urmas Taniloo has performed as organ soloist in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden and Norway. As the accompanist of various choirs such as Estonian National Male Choir, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tartu Boys Choir, Girls’ Choir Ellerhein, Kurekell, Tarbatu Singing Choir he has travelled in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Ireland, Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

He has appeared as a soloist with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Eller Sinfonietta, as well as symphony orchestras of Estonian National Opera and Vanemuine Theatre with conductors Paul Mägi, Peeter Saul, Endel Nõgene and Lilyan Kaiv. He has played organ in large-scale works performances.
In 1978–1998 Urmas Taniloo regularely gave concerts in Vanemuine Concert Hall and performed live organ music at stage plays at theatre Vanemuine, including music by Estonian composers.

Urmas Taniloo has performed with well-known Estonian singers (M. Voites, L. Mark, N. Kurem, E. Vanamölder, T. Noor, J. Pärg) and instrumentalists (L. Kits, A. Fisch, O. Ainomäe, K. Eeroja-Põldoja and others).

At the present time, Urmas Taniloo works as an organist and organ maintainer at the Vanemuine Concert House, as well as teacher and sound engeneer at the Tartu H. Eller Music School. As an enthusiast and archivist of local music scene, Urmas Taniloo has made numerous recordings of performances of Tartu choirs, ensembles and orchestras.

Urmas Taniloo has been recorded by the Estonain Radio and Estonian Televisioni. In collaboration with Estonian Radio, two CDs of Urmas Taniloo’s organ perormances were released in 2005, one of them with solo music and the other one with ensemble music.

© EMIC 2012

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