Tõnu Kaljuste - conductor who founded the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EPCC) (1981) and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (TCO) (1993). He has been a regular Grammy nominee and the winner of several prizes for recordings (Diapason d'Or de l'Annee 2000, Cannes Classical Award, Edison Prize).

Kaljuste has been a lecturer at the Tallinn Conservatory and a conductor of the Estonian National Opera. He has worked with many orchestras and choirs all over the world. During the 1990’s, next to his work with the EPCC and the TCO, he was also the principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir. Since 2001 he has worked internationally as a freelance conductor. He has been appointed a member of the Royal Music Academy of Sweden and has been awarded the Japanese ABC Music Fund Award and the International Robert Edler Prize for Choral Music.

Kaljuste has dedicated a major part of his work to the music of Estonian composers (Heino Eller, Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, and Erkki-Sven Tüür), whose compositions he has recorded for the ECM Record label. He has also recorded all of the Vespers and Litanies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as the church music of Antonio Vivaldi for the Carus Verlag record label. He has worked in collaboration with composers such as Alfred Schnittke, György Kurtag, Krzysztof Penderecki, Erik Bergman, Gia Kancheli, Sven-David Sandström, Knut Nystedt, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Brett Dean, R. Murray Schafer, a.o.

During the previous year, Tõnu Kaljuste has conducted the symphony orchestras of the Berlin Radio, the Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik, Saarbrücken, Iceland, Stravänger, Luxembourg, Odense, Verona, Latvia and Estonia. Concerts in 2004 began in Oslo with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra and with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland and continue with concerts in Tallinn, Toronto, Helsinki, Helsingborgs and Stockholm.

Tõnu Kaljuste’s newest recordings to be released in 2004 will be "Harmony of the Spheres” (Donemus Composer’s Voice) with the Netherlands Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra performing the world premiere recording of a cycle by Joep Franssens, and “Miserere” (Globe Records) with the Netherlands Chamber Choir performing the a cappella choral works of Krzysztof Penderecki.