Tallinn Music Week

Kristjan Järvi and Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta at TMW 2016 opening concert

Tallinn Music Week (TMW) is a weeklong city festival, contemporary music showcase and music industry conference, held every spring in Tallinn, Estonia. It is the meeting point for Eastern, Western and Central European music and creative communities, attended by around 35,000 people and 1,000 music industry executives yearly.[1] It has been acknowledged as an attractive tourism destination by The Guardian.[2] and New York Times[3]

TMW was first held from 26 to 29 March in 2009[4] as a showcase festival and conference for international music-industry professionals and emerging regional acts. Organized by Musiccase company, its initial aim was to present current Estonian music to regional public and international industry and to help local music entrepreneurs expand their activities to foreign markets.

During the last few years the festival has broadened its concept further into a multi cultural and thought-provoking event.[5] Besides showcasing around 250 musical acts from all over the world, TMW also presents various art forms and dissects large-scale global issues within its Talks programme and Creativity For Change Forum.

Festival programme

In addition to the music festival line-up TMW offers a series of free City Stage concerts, a selection of eateries within TMW Tastes, TMW Arts programme, curated by the Estonian Contemporary Arts Development Centre, Tallinn Craft Beer Weekend presenting microbreweries, Design Market showcasing Baltic and Scandinavian brands and designs, and TMW Talks series with topics from music to science and societal issues. In 2016 TMW also moved outdoors with its City Space activities in cooperation with the interior designers of Estonian Arts Academy, and presented five music films at Sõprus Cinema.

Music festival

Liima at Kino Sõprus

Among the Estonian acts who have performed at the festival and have won TMW's annual artist award (Skype Award 2009-2014, Wire Prize 2015, Telliskivi Creative City Award 2016), are Popidiot (2009), Iiris (2010), Ewert and The Two Dragons (2011), Talbot (2012), Elephants From Neptune (2013), Odd Hugo (2014), Maarja Nuut (2015), and I Wear* Experiment (2016).

Among the international acts who have performed at the festival are Vashti Bunyan (UK), Public Service Broadcasting (UK), All We Are (UK), Motorama (RU), Kate Boy (SWE) Mirel Wagner (FI), Rubik (FI), The Membranes (UK), Glen Matlock (UK), Kristjan Järvi (US), Yukon Blonde (CA), and Jaakko Eino Kalevi (FI).

TMW Conference opening at Nordic Hotel Forum

Conference

A two-day international music and creative industry conference within TMW hosts discussion panels, presentations and networking opportunities for established industry professionals as well as new innovative brands and initiatives. The opening speech of the conference is traditionally delivered by the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

The TMW music industry conference brings together around 1,000 music industry players around the world. Throughout the festival's existence several international industry experts, artistic figures and pop mavericks have participated in the conference panel discussions, among them Seymour Stein, the founder and president of Sire Records (Madonna, Ramones), influential managers Simon Napier-Bell (The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Wham!), Petri Lunden (Cardigans, Europe), Edward Bicknell (Dire Straits, Scott Walker, Bryan Ferry), Peter Jenner (Pink Floyd), artists-turned authors Viv Albertine (The Slits), John Robb (The Membranes, Louder Than War), Bob Stanley (St Etienne), renown acts like Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Rich Kids), Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot, and many others.

TMW 2016 edition also introduced the one-day Creativity for Change Forum within the conference that brought together game-changers from business, education, science, technology, arts, culture, civil society and policy making from all over the world. One of the main speakers of the Creativity for Change Forum 2016 was the Kurdish Turk entrepreneur and philanthropist Hamdi Ulukaya.

Gorö Lana at Jooks bike shop

Film

In 2016 TMW presented a music film programme "Social Sounds" in Sõprus Cinema.

Multi goes kulti

In 2016 TMW payed special attention to cultural and ethnic diversity, taking festival visitors to the wider world with the help of music, films, talks, food and interesting people, studying together how culture and creativity can help to solve problems and work as a development engine.

Awards and credits

In autumn 2014, British daily The Guardian and Sunday paper The Observer picked the top 5 music festivals in the world for winter breaks, among them Tallinn Music Week. 2016: The Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves awarded the Order of the White Star of IV Class to Tallinn Music Week founder Helen Sildna for her contribution to Estonian music life and civil society.

Tallinn Music Week
EditionYearDatesAttendanceTotal number
of acts		Estonian actsArtist award
1 2009 26–29 March 4000 67 65 Skype Award: Popidiot
2 2010 25–27 March 6000 70 Skype Award: Iiris
3 2011 24–26 March 7600 147 123 Skype Award: Ewert and the Two Dragons
4 2012 29–31 March 11 200 183 150 Skype Award: Talbot
5 2013 4–6 April 17 038 233 123 Skype Award: Elephants from Neptune
6 2014 29–30 March 22 900 227 149 Skype Award: Odd Hugo
7 2015 25–28 March 24 050 206 121 Wire Prize: Maarja Nuut
8 2016 28 March–3 April 34670 240 116 Telliskivi Creative City Award: I Wear*Experiment
9 2017 27 March–2 April

International media coverage

In 2014, British quality daily The Guardian picked the Top 10 music festivals for winter breaks and Tallinn Music Week was among them. „Tallinn is known for its art-nouveau architecture, free public transport – and its ability to attract stag and hen parties. It's also becoming increasingly relevant for the music it serves up, especially at this developing annual event. Tallinn Music Week is always opened by Estonia's rock-digging president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who has been known to quote PJ Harvey and Jello Biafra in his annual festival speech. The bands are hardly big name acts, but if you're in the mood to discover some new Baltic beats, this is the place to do it," the paper said.[10]

In 2016, Tom Hawking on Flavorwire pointed out that "/.../ the Estonian national government clearly has no problem providing state funding for such an endeavor, as well as getting involved in other, more hands-on ways. And by that, I mean that the freaking President of Estonia played a DJ set at this year's festival. As much as "cool" is an integral part of Barack Obama's brand, it's hard to imagine him getting on the wheels of steel to drop an impromptu Chicago house set."[11]

References

  1. ↑ "8 Things We Learnt at Tallinn Music Week". Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  2. ↑ Beanland, Christopher (2014-10-30). "Top 10 music festivals for winter breaks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  3. ↑ Shea, Christopher D. "What's On This Week Around The World". Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  4. ↑ "Tallinn Music Week". archive.tallinnmusicweek.ee. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  5. ↑ Tyler, Kieron (10 April 2016). "theartsdesk". Theartsdesk. Theartsdesk.
  6. ↑ "Tallinn Music Week helps Estonia to punch above its weight again". 2013-04-06. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  7. ↑ "Tallinn Music Week 2013 « Cross Innovation". www.cross-innovation.eu. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  8. ↑ Bureau, Tallinn city Tourist Office & Convention. "News - Tallinn Convention". Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  9. ↑ "Estonian music promoter Helen Sildna wins award in Tampere". 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2016-09-05.
  10. ↑ Beanland, Christopher (2014-10-30). "Top 10 music festivals for winter breaks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  11. ↑ "Tallinn Music Week: An Unexpected Lesson in How to Do a City Festival Right". 2016-05-20. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
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