Arvo Pärt was born in Paide, Estonia, in 1935. After studying composition and piano at the Tallinn Conservatory, he found work as a sound technician at the national radio station. This position allowed him to listen to much more music than the Soviet regime typically permitted at the time, sparking his own compositional journey. He soon realized, however, that the complexity of serial music—an idiom he had initially experimented with—did not suit him. This led to a period of silence and deep introspection, during which he immersed himself in the study of Gregorian chant and early music, gradually shaping the foundations of his musical vision.
In 1976, he emerged with a new musical language: tintinnabuli. Marked by an apparent simplicity, it conceals a profound harmonic and polyphonic complexity. From that moment on, his ascetic, meditative music began to attract attention around the world.
Works such as Fratres (1977), Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977), Tabula Rasa (1977), and Spiegel im Spiegel (1978) brought him international acclaim. In 1980, he emigrated with his family to Vienna, eventually settling in Berlin.
