Kaia Urb
b. 26.02.1956, TallinnKaia Urb is one of the most acclaimed oratorio singers in Estonia and abroad. She graduated from the Tallinn State Conservatoire where she studied music pedagogics under the guidance of Harald Uibo and singing with Elsa Maasik. She also has developed her skills with Lilian Gentele in Stockholm (1990).
Since 1982 Kaia Urb has been a member of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. She has sung solo parts in various oratorios of the choir’s repertoire and has taken part in many concert tours and recordings. Concert tours with Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra have taken her to Europe, USA, Canada, Japan and Australia including renowned festivals in Ansbach, Bremen, Huddersfield, Perth, Milano, Abu Gosh etc. Kaia Urb has worked with many renowned conductors such as Tõnu Kaljuste, Neeme Järvi, Paul Mägi, Paul Hillier, Olari Elts, Juha Kangas, Daniel Reuss, Nikolai Aleksejev and others, and various ensembles and orchestras such as The Hilliard Ensemble, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Tallinn Baroque Orchestra, Estonian early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, Estonian contemporary music ensemble NYYD Ensemble, Chamber Orchestras of Lithuania, Prague, Australia etc.
Kaia Urb’s repertoire ranges from baroque music to new works by contemporary composers: Johann Sebastian Bach’s "St Matthew Passion", "St John Passion", "St Mark Passion", "Easter Oratorio" and many cantatas, Georg Frideric Handel’s „Messiah”, „Judas Maccabeus” and „Dixit Dominus”, Henry Purcell’s „Dido and Aeneas”, Claudio Monteverdi’s „Vespro della Beata Virgine”, Ottorino Respighi’s „Lauda per la natività del Signore”, Antonio Vivaldi’s „Gloria”, Joseph Haydn’s „Creation”, „Season” and masses, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem, „Vesperae solennes de Confessore”, „Litaniae Lauretanae” and masses, Felix Mendelssohn’s „Elijah”, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Francis Poulenc’s „Gloria”, Steve Reich´s „Tehillim” and „Proverb”, Arvo Pärt’s „Passio”, „Miserere”, „Te Deum”, Luciano Berio’s „Sequenza III” etc.
Kaia Urb is also an excellent chamber musician and has held concerts with the ensembles as Camerata Tallinn and Corelli Consort and choirs such as Ellerhein, Noorus etc. She often performs with guitarist Heiki Mätlik and has recorded several CDs with him. She has performed music by many Estonian composers including Ester Mägi, Kuldar Sink, Eino Tamberg, Veljo Tormis and Toivo Tulev, various works have been written for her voice and first performed by Kaia Urb including Ester Mägi's "The Night", Eino Tamberg's "Memories of Father, Op. 113", Veljo Tormis "Ten Haikus" (by Heiki Mätlik's setting), Toivo Tulev's "Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt I", Margo Kõlar's "Andromeda" and "Night", René Eespere's "Passiones", "Epigram VI" and "Glorificatio". Also she has been a regular guest at many Estonian music festivals including Haapsalu Early Music Festival and David Oistrach Festival.
Kaia Urb has been rewarded Annual Prize of the Estonian Cultural Endowment for Music in 1996 and 1998. In 2013 she was given the Order of the White Star, 4th class.
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