Maano Männi
b. September 23, 1966, TartuViolinist Maano Männi has graduated from the Tallinn Music High School with Tiiu Peäske (1985) and the Estonian Music Academy under the guidance of Prof Jüri Gerretz (1992).
He has been the principal violinist with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (1993–1996), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (1993–2000) and the guest-principal violinist with the Estonian National Opera Symphony Orchestra (2004/2005) and has collaborated closely with the Estonian Sinfonietta since its founding in 2017. Additionally, he has been a member of the several orchestras, e.g. chamber orchestra Camerata Nordica (Sweden). Since 2002, he holds the position of concertmaster in the Vaasa City Orchestra in Finland.
Maano Männi is also known as a solo artist and a chamber musician, who has collaborated with internationally recognized musicians like pianist Ralf Gothóni (Finnish/Germany), cellist Torleif Thedéen (Sweden), violist Yuval Gotlibovich (Israel/USA) and many others. In 2001, Männi was one of the co-founder of the Tobias String Quartet, which has given concerts all over Europe, including at Berlin Konzerthaus in 2015. He has also played in several ensembles, e.g. one of the leading Estonian new music ensemble NYYD Ensemble. He has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras conducted by outstanding conductors like Neeme Järvi, Alexander Vedernikov, Andrei Boreiko, Arvo Volmer, Juha Kangas, Jin Wang and others.
Maano Männi is also active as an orchestral conductor. He has participated in master courses of Prof Jorma Panula and Prof Leonid Grin and has taken conducting classes from Ilmar Tõnisson. He has led Estonian orchestras such as the Pärnu City Orchestra, the Estonian Sinfonietta and the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta, and his home orchestra, the Vaasa City Orchestra. He likes to synthesize musical styles and create varied concert programs. In Vaasa, the school and senior concerts as well as the concerts in the series „Wish concerts“ („Your Moments“, „Flamenco“, „Tango Nuevo“, „Tchaikovsky’s Portrait“) conducted by Maano Männi have gained recognition. Männi brought the popular „wish concerts“ idea also to Estonia where the Pärnu City Orchestra under the baton of Männi has offered several concert programs requested by the audience. In 2015, he conducted the concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Estonian composer Evald Vain with the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta and the actors of the Tallinn City Theatre at the major concert halls in Estonia. In January 2018, he acted as a soloist, principal violinist and conductor with the Estonian Sinfonietta at the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn and in May performed with the same orchestra at the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna under the guidance of Kristiina Poska.
Maano Männi has recorded different music with various groups for several record companies, including Erdenklang, Ondine and Alba Records. In 2012, the CD „Six seasons +” presents works of solo violin and orchestra by Astor Piazzolla and Evald Vain, performed by Männi and Pärnu City Orchestra. In 2014, the Vaasa City Orchestra released a CD „Finnish Lyricism and Romance” where he plays Toivo Kuula’s violin piece Notturno, Op. 3a/2 (orchestrated by Maano Männi).
Since 2016, Maano Männi plays the violin made in 1810 by French master Charles François Gandi, owned by the Finnish Cultural Endowment.
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