Andres Mustonen

One of the first conductors from the Baltic countries to achieve international renown, Andres Mustonen remains among the most successful. Early on in his career, he cultivated a specialty in early music, which was quite rare in the former Soviet Union; he established his own ensemble, Hortus Musicus, with which he has performed and recorded widely. Mustonen was born on September 1, 1953, in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, then part of the Soviet Union. His first instrument was the violin, and he graduated in 1972 from the Tallinn Music High School with a concentration in that instrument. That year, Mustonen founded the historical-performance ensemble Hortus Musicus, one of the first of its type not only in Estonia but in the entire Soviet Union; the group remains active and has made many recordings, performing not only early music but also contemporary repertory. Mustonen went on to the Tallinn State Conservatory, where his principal teacher was Endel Lippus. He graduated in 1975. As the Baltic countries opened to the West in the 1980s, Mustonen was able to go on for further studies in Austria and the Netherlands. He made several recordings with Hortus Musicus in the early '90s, including Vasakungarnas hov, an album of early Swedish music released on the Musica Sveciae label. Returning home to Estonia as it liberalized, Mustonen launched a general conducting career. He appeared with ensembles in the Baltic countries, in Russia, and in Germany, Finland, and Sweden, often conducting choirs as well as orchestras. Mustonen conducted such major orchestras as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, with a repertory running from Schütz to contemporary times; he often programmed the works of major contemporary Russian and Ukrainian composers, including Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Valentin Silvestrov. His collaborators have been a prestigious group that includes violinist Oleg Kagan, recorder player Michala Petri, and flutist Patrick Gallois. Mustonen's diverse activities range into jazz and folk music. He has released several albums, including Canto :) with Hortus Musicus in 2019, and, for the BR Klassik label, a recording of Silvestrov's Requiem für Larissa with the Munich Radio Symphony and Bavarian Radio Chorus in 2022 (originally recorded live in 2011). Mustonen is the founder of the MustonenFest Tallinn, which fosters musical exchanges between Estonia and Israel; he remains the festival's artistic director.
© James Manheim /TiVo