Born on 18th June 1905 in Kallaste (Estonia), died 17th November 1982 in Stockholm. He studied at Tartu College of Music (organ and composition with Heino Eller) between 1924 and 1930 and taught composition there 1940-1944. He was the Conductor of Tartu City Theatre, 1931- 1944. He took part in the 1931 ISCM Festival, afterwards helping to propagate new music in his native country. In Budapest in 1938 he met Bartók and Kodály, and took lessons from the latter. Emulating Kodály, he studied at the Museum of Ethnography in Tartu so as to acquaint himself with Estonian folk music. He fled to Sweden in 1944, becoming a Swedish citizen in 1961. He was awarded an Atterberg Fellowship 1977.
At the time of his precipitate departure from Estonia in 1944, Eduard Tubin ranked as its foremost composer, and subsequently he retained very close links with his old country. His music was frequently performed there and Estonia continued to supply him with commissions. For example, the Estonian National Theatre commissioned an opera, Reigi ôpetaia (1971). His opera Barbara von Tisenhusen has been played about 50 times in the USSR, and his ballet Kratt, based on Estonian folklore, belongs to the standing repertoire.
Tubin’s music combines folk music tradition with Slavonic late Romanticism. The element of folk music is particularly important in his Estonian Dance Suite and Suite on Estonian Dance Melodies. The ten symphonies (an eleventh remained unfinished) include no elements of folk music, but the tragedy and identity of Estonia are still unmistakably present in them. His Fifth Symphony (1947), which is played and appreciated all over the world, has a slow movement which incorporates the old Estonian hymn tune The Night is soon over.
Tubin’s music has an insistant rhythmic beat, clarity of structure and imaginative, colourful orchestration. And yet to the end, he received quite niggardly treatment in his new country. The first composition he wrote here was Piano Concertino (1944), which, it is true, was played and well-received: “Tubin’s style is modern but not dry and linear but full of folk music temperament, buoyant and vigorous. He mixes sounds and rhythms, writes lyrically, dramatically and with motoric energy, and out of these several elements his inspiration composes and fashions a complete and concentrated work.“ (William Seymer). But for almost 30 years he had to make a living by preparing scores for the Drottningholm Palace Theatre. This gave him a detailed knowledge of Haydn and Mozart but little contact with Swedish music. It is only since his death that a vigorous interest has developed in his music, and plans now exist to record his complete orchestral works (including solo concertos for violin, double bass and balalaika). SJ

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