Arvo Pärt Music House

The priority of the city of Rakvere in the coming years is the completion of a multifunctional concert hall named after most famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. 

Maestro Arvo Pärt is a world-famous composer and Rakvere's honoured citizen since 1995. Arvo Pärt spent his childhood and youth in Rakvere, and started his music studies at Rakvere Music School. Which we are really proud of and therefore we celebrate his birthday every year with different concerts in various places.

The idea of transforming the church into concert hall came from one of maestros visits to Rakvere by the St. Paul's Church („Pauluse kirik"), when he suggested that there should be music in that church. From there on the Rakvere City Government has been working towards, one day, transforming St. Paul's Church into a concert hall.

By visiting Rakvere, you can follow the maestro's footsteps by visiting the buildings he once lived or studied. To read more: https://rakvere.kovtp.ee/trukised-ja-videod

To read more about maestro Arvo Pärt visit: https://www.arvopart.ee/en/arvo-part/biography/

 

Freedom Church – St. Paul's Church - Kalev Hall - Arvo Pärt Music House
St. Paul's Church was designed by architect Alar Kotli in 1935. The towers were never completed and the church was never consecrated because of the World War II.

 

1935 - sketch by architect Alar Kotli
1937 - beginning of the construction
2007 - Planning for the reconstruction of St. Paul's Church
2009 - architectural competition
Winners of the architectural competition – design called „tintin´na:buli", architects Kristiina Aasvee, Kristiina Hussar and Anne Kose

Famous Estonian architect Alar Kotli designed the building as the Estonian Freedom Church in 1935 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Estonia.

The construction works started in 1937, but was put on hold in 1940 because of the World War II. The church was not completed. But St. Paul's Church in Rakvere, even without tower helmets, is still a rare site in Estonia, as it is one of the few sacral buildings with two towers.

The new architectural solution of Arvo Pärt Music House restores the church building in a dignified way with originally planned tower helmets - thus valuing the Estonian architectural heritage.

This project is fabulous as it reconstructs the old church and transforms it into a concert hall but also adds a new space which will serve as an art gallery, cofrence room, smaller concert hall etc. The heart of the three-hall multifunctional music house is the concert hall with a capacity of about 450 people.
Take a look at this 3D video, to get a glimpse how the Arvo Pärt Music House will look like in the future.

Rakvere City Government submitted the project to the Estonian Parliament's Committee of Culture to name the Arvo Pärt Music House a nationally important cultural building and to get more funding to start building as it is a very ambitious project for a small city.

Therefore we need all the support, let's do it together!

As the Music House is an expensive and ambitious project for Rakvere, we have also initiated fundraising to support the building and donations are welcome from all over the world.

Account name: Arvo Pärdi nimeline Muusikamaja
Account number: EE881010220286763229
Account holder: Rakvere Linnavalitsus

 

The purpose of the donation account is to gather the necessary additional funding to start construction. The donated money will be used only for the construction of Arvo Pärt Music House.