Mihhail Gerts leads sixth TubIN Festival
Mihhail Gerts returns as Artistic Director of the TubIN Festival from 28 September to 4 October, leading the sixth edition of the event dedicated to the music of the Estonian composer Eduard Tubin. Taking place in Alatskivi, Tartu and Tallinn, this year’s programme explores the theme ‘Who am I?’
Gerts conducts the opening concert, featuring Sibelius and Grieg alongside the premiere of Tubin’s Estonian Instrumental Tales, originally written as a string quartet and arranged for string orchestra. He also conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Tubin’s Sinfonietta on Estonian Motifs, Violin Concerto no.2 and Symphony no.5.
The festival also includes a presentation of Tubin’s collected works, a long-running project to produce a multi-volume scholarly edition of his music, involving Gerts, musicologist Kerri Kotta and members of the International Eduard Tubin Society. It closes with a multidisciplinary performance involving 400 young dancers to music from Tubin’s ballet Kratt (‘goblin’), with Gerts conducting Estonian National Theatre Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra and special guest Erika Tubin, the composer’s great-granddaughter.
Tubin (1905–1982) fled Estonia for Sweden in 1944 and spent the rest of his life in exile. Gerts founded the festival in 2021 to bring his music to a wider international audience. In June 2026 he released the recording of The Early Years of Eduard Tubin with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. His book, Eduard Tubin’s Formative Years, published in Estonian last year, will appear in German later this year. In October, he conducts Tubin’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.
