Rapla Church
July 10 at 7 PM
FESTIVAL OPENING CONCERT – DEDICATION
Festival BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Shai Kribus (oboe, Israel)
Sopranos: Karis Trass, Kädy Plaas
Mezzosopranos: Aule Urb, Triin Ella
Conductor: Andres Mustonen
*Announcement of the "Young Musician of Rapla County 2025" Grand Prix winner
A pre-concert conversation-meeting with Bishop Anti Toplaan of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELC) Diocese of Saare-Lääne will take place at 6 PM
 

SHAI KRIBUS lives in Basel, Switzerland, and performs as an oboist and recorder player with several ensembles across Europe. He is also a regular performer with the Israeli ensemble Barrocada. Kribus studied at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (the early music institute of the Basel Music Academy), the Conservatorio di Verona, and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He also studied orchestral conducting in Bern and harpsichord-based conducting in Geneva. Kribus is the founder and conductor of the ensemble Il Botto Forte, which focuses on 18th-century instrumental and vocal chamber music. Since the age of 16, he has been a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship for both oboe and recorder. He was a finalist in the 8th International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition in Melk, Austria, and was named an outstanding musician in the Israel Defense Forces Orchestra.

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KÄDY PLAAS has earned acclaim on both the concert stage and the opera stage. As a sought-after soloist, she performs regularly in large-scale vocal-symphonic works and collaborates with numerous performers and ensembles. As an opera singer, she has appeared not only in Estonia but also in Germany, where she made her debut in 2007 as Frasquita in Carmen. Plaas completed her master’s studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2014 under Nadia Kurem and has been teaching there since 2019. She has participated in masterclasses with Cathrine Sadolin, Ingrid Kremling, and Sona Ghazarian. From 2002–2004, she sang with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and has been a soloist with the Nargen Opera project theatre since 2004. She has also appeared in productions at the Estonian National Opera, Vanemuine Theatre, and the Hamburg State Opera. Her extensive repertoire spans from early Baroque to contemporary music. As a soloist, she has performed with many orchestras and renowned conductors and has appeared at numerous festivals as a chamber musician. Her concert tours have taken her to Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and France. Plaas has received several prestigious awards, including the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Annual Music Award (2006), the Marje and Kuldar Sink Young Singer Prize (2007), the Lili Kaelas Music Foundation Scholarship (2007), and a performance scholarship from the Estonian Cultural Endowment (2008).

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KARIS TRASS studied flute at Nõmme Music School and voice at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music School under Ludmilla Dombrovska-Keis. In 2019, she earned her bachelor’s degree in classical singing at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre under Heli Veskus. She graduated cum laude with a master’s degree in 2022, during which time she also studied in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Anna Samuil’s vocal class. She has participated in masterclasses with Chen Reiss, Dale Fundling, and Kirsten Schötteldreier, and has studied with Kamal Khan and Jon Thorsteinsson. Trass has sung as a soloist with the Kiili Early Music Ensemble and was a member of the Savonlinna Opera Choir during the 2017/18 season. Since 2022, she has been a soloist at the Estonian National Opera. In 2021, she received the Naan Põld Prize from the Estonia Society and a scholarship from the Estonian National Culture Foundation, and in 2022 she was awarded the SEB Audience Prize. In 2024, she received the Crystal Slipper Award for her performance as Mélisande in Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.

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AULE URB began her vocal studies in 2010 with Jaakko Ryhänen and graduated with a master’s degree cum laude in 2017 under Eva Märtson. In 2012, she studied at the Accademia del Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” in Italy through the PLMF Young Talents program. During the 2014/2015 academic year, she was an Erasmus exchange student at the Sibelius Academy. Urb has competed in several vocal competitions, placing third in the National Vocalist Competition dedicated to Vello Jürna and second in the Mart Saar Song Competition. She was a semifinalist in the Klaudia Taev International Competition for Opera Singers and was awarded a scholarship by the Estonian Richard Wagner Society in 2017. Since 2015, she has been a choir artist and soloist at the Estonian National Opera. In addition to opera and large-scale works, chamber music plays an important role in her repertoire. She has performed with pianist Anneli Tohver and soprano Mariin Aavik (Gill), with whom she won first prize at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Lied-Duo Competition in 2015. Together they have presented programs such as Poetry in Music – Songs of Mary Stuart, Wild Mezzos and Gypsy Songs with mezzo-soprano Tuuri Dede, and A Glance Into the New Year featuring Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies. Urb is also active as an organizer, having initiated multiple concerts featuring young Estonian mezzo-sopranos under the title Wild Mezzos. In 2017, she co-founded the non-profit organization Opera Veto with singers Atlan Karp and Aivar Kaseste to promote chamber opera productions. Since 2020, she has been part of the organizing team of the Vello Jürna Competition.

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TRIIN ELLA graduated from Tallinn University in cultural management and choral conducting (1993), earned her bachelor’s degree in classical singing from the Estonian Academy of Music (2001), and completed her master’s degree in chamber singing there in 2004 under Prof. Mati Palm. She also studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig with Prof. Regina Werner-Dietrich (2003–2004). Ella has taken further training in both voice and pedagogy in Finland and Germany and works as a vocal coach with several choirs. Since 2001, she has been a member of the Estonian National Opera chorus, with solo roles in both operas and operettas. Together with actor Jaak Jõekallas, she created two radio series for Estonian Public Broadcasting—The Charm of Melody and Nostalgia—featuring operetta and film music, aired on Klassikaraadio and Vikerraadio. Since 2010, she has taught voice and vocal pedagogy at Tallinn Music High School and gives voice training to choirs across Estonia through the Estonian Choral Association’s mentoring program.

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ANDRES MUSTONEN is a highly distinctive violinist, conductor, and ensemble leader. Everything he undertakes—whether conducting the symphonies of the Viennese classics, Mahler, or Shostakovich, or directing the early music ensemble Hortus Musicus—reflects his original musical insight and approach to performance. As a conductor, he enjoys traversing the distant paths of music history. Oratorios, passions, and dramatic symphonic works have always held a significant place in his repertoire. Mustonen is especially passionate about performing music by contemporary composers with whom he shares a deep creative kinship (Gubaidulina, Penderecki, Kancheli, Silvestrov, Knaifel, Tüür, Pärt, and Terteryan). Though formally trained at the Tallinn Conservatory, his musical path has been anything but academic or conventional. As a young student, he was inspired by avant-garde music, composed, and organized musical happenings. In the 1970s, while still a student, he turned his attention to the values of the European Christian tradition and founded Hortus Musicus, an early music ensemble he has led ever since. The group’s repertoire spans traditional Indian, Arabic, and Jewish music to works by contemporary composers. Mustonen also enjoys performing in smaller chamber groups with his many musician friends. In recent years, he has collaborated with the Art Jazz Quartet, which he founded. As a violin soloist and conductor—whether with Hortus Musicus or local orchestras—Mustonen gives concerts around the world: in neighboring Latvia, Finland, and Russia, as well as far-off places like Brazil, Mexico, Israel, and throughout Europe. “I never share the stage with someone I don’t know, someone who isn’t my friend or whom I don’t love,” says Mustonen.