The Academic Women’s Choir of the University of Tartu

The Academic Women’s Choir of the University of Tartu (in Estonian Tartu Ülikooli Akadeemiline Naiskoor aka TÜAN) is an Estonian female choir founded in 1945 by music teacher and conductor Richard Ritsing. The choir’s patron and main benefactor is the University of Tartu, and the academic influence is found both in our traditions and repertoire. We are a concert choir, although our singers are all amateurs. Since 2005, TÜAN’s chief conductor has been Triin Koch who is repeatedly acknowledged as one of Estonia`s most talented choir conductors and the vocal trainer of TÜAN since 2003 is Vivian Kallaste. Most of our singers are students or alumni of the University of Tartu. This brings about constant change in the membership, but also makes the choir very youthful and open to new ideas. From its foundation, the choir has participated in every Estonian Song and Dance Celebration and been one of the initiators and tradition carriers of the Baltic Students’ Song and Dance Festival “Gaudeamus”. During its 77 years of existence, the choir's achievements at home have been crowned by many national prizes as well as nominations in international competitions. Most recently (in 2019) the choir won the Vietnam International Choir Competition in three categories: A-category women's choirs, sacred music, and folklore. The choir is named the Women’s Choir of the Year in Estonia in 2010 and in 2015 and has also won the recent two (2015 and 2018) Estonian Female and Girls Choirs Competitive singing competitions. Conductor Triin Koch has been recognized multiple times over the years, most recently as the conductor of the year (2019), Tartu Culture Bearer (2019) and Vaike Uibopuu`s Foundation stipend winner in 2020.