Ülo Krigul

b. November 7, 1978, Tallinn
Member of the Estonian Composers' Union since 2003

The nature of Ülo Krigul’s musical expression is lively and dynamic. His style includes a broad spectrum of musical means, influences from jazz, post-minimalism and sonoristics among them. The imagery of Krigul’s music is rich in playful contrasts. At the present time his major compositional interest is "to treat chords and the relationship between them as geometric figures or graphic projections".

Ülo Krigul graduated from Tallinn Music High School (Alo Põldmäe’s composition class and the extracurricular tuba class) in 1997, and from the Estonian Academy of Music under the guidance of Raimo Kangro and René Eespere in 2003. In 2004/2005 he furthered his studies at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien with Detlev Müller-Siemens. In 2006, he obtained master degree in composition with Tõnu Kõrvits at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

The works of Ülo Krigul have been performed at several music festivals in Estonia (Estonian Music Days, international new music festival NYYD, percussion festival PaukenfEST, international pianists' festival Klaver, Glasperlenspiel etc) as well as in Germany, Austria, Czech, Latvia, Ukraine etc.

Ülo Krigul is also active as music organiser. In 1995–1999 he belonged to the staff of the international jazz festival Jazzkaar. In 2001 and 2002 he was the artistic director of the Autumn Festival of the Estonian Academy of Music founded by him and Timo Steiner in 1999. In 2000–2004 he was engaged as the producer of the Estonian Music Days Festival; from 2005–2014, he was one of the artistic directors of the festival.
From 1993, Krigul has been a keyboard player and arranger in many rock and jazz ensembles. At the present time he plays keyboards in the ensembles Compromise Blue and Contus Firmus. In 2019, Krigul is the resident composer for the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.

In 2003, Krigul's organ piece Over-tour won the second prize at the Artur Kapp contest for new organ music. His orchestral work JenZeits won the Europäische Komponistenpreis 2005 at the young.euro.classic festival in Berlin and received the first prize at the International Composers' Rostrum in Paris in the category of composers under 30 years in 2007. In 2005, Ülo Krigul got the Best Debut Award of the Estonian National Culture Foundation. In 2006, he was awarded the Heino Eller Music Prize and the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for artistic direction of the Estonian Music Days Festival and Estonian music propaganda. In 2007, Krigul was awarded the Annual Prize of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in the artistic team of feature film Autumn Ball and the Annual Prize of Endowment for Music of Culture Endowment of Estonia. Swan Bone City for voice and symphony orchestra was awarded the Composer Prize of the Estonian Music Days Festival 2012 and Prince Pierre of Monaco Music Composition Prize (2014). In 2016, Ülo Krigul's work Vesi ise for mixed choir and phonogram gained the 2nd place at the International Rostrum of Composers in Wroclaw. In 2016, Ülo Krigul achieved the Estonian Music Council Music Prize. In 2021, Krigul was given the Lepo Sumera Award for Composition.

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(updated 2021, August)

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