Sacred Song Festival “Joy to the World”

The Sacred Song Festival will bring together around 1,600 singers and instrumentalists from Estonia and elsewhere in Europe to praise and glorify God with sacred choral and brass music. There will be children's choirs, women's choirs, mixed choirs and brass bands. Both older and newer Estonian choral music will be performed.

Church Day and Sacred Song Festival is part of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 additional programme.
The Sacred Song Festival will bring together around 1,600 singers and instrumentalists from Estonia and elsewhere in Europe to praise and glorify God with sacred choral and brass music. There will be children’s choirs, women’s choirs, mixed choirs and brass bands. Both older and newer Estonian choral music will be performed. The best of the Estonian choral classics will be represented by Rudolf Tobias’ “Eks teie tea”, while songs by Karl August Hermann, Hugo Lepnurme and Roman Toi will also be performed by the older generation. The Song Festival motto song “Mystery” was written by Rein Kalmus. Of course, the festival will also feature the much-loved folk chorale settings, which will be performed by almost every type of choir. The settings are written by Cyrillus Kreek, Kadri Hunt and Gunnar Idenstam. Encouragingly, the Song Festival features a large number of works by younger composers. Music by Pärt Uusberg, Tõnu Kõrvits, Evelin Kõrvits, Piret Rips-Laul, Rasmus Puur, Riho Esko Maimets and Mari Amor will be heard. The artistic director of the Song Festival is Heli Jürgenson.

If you want to grab a bite or need a place to stay, see what the Tartu 2024 hospitality network offers in the area: https://tartu2024.ee/recommendations-viljandi