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The Estonian mezzo-soprano, Urve Tauts, took up music early at the Tallinn Music School. She graduated in singing from the Tallinn State Conservatory, in the class of Alice Roolaid (1954-1963).
From 1955 to 1960, Urve Tauts sang in the Estonia Opera Chorus. She was the soloist of the Estonian National Opera from 1960 till 2001. She was one of the most outstanding mezzo-sopranos in Estonia of all times. She had a brilliant voice with wide range; therefore, she has also sung soprano parts, chamber music and oratorio works. She performed over fifty stage characters, participated in over thirty large-form vocal-symphonic works in Estonia as well as in other USSR republics and abroad, appearing on the stage, concert platforms, on the radio and television. Among her most brilliant and famous operatic roles can be mentioned Carmen, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Amneris in Aida and Eboli in Don Carlos. Her voice also enabled to
her sing the roles of dramatic sopranos such as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana. Other roles/parts were in W.A. Mozart’s Requiem, G. Verdi's Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Rudolf Tobias’ Joonase lähetamine, Igor Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies, Nos. 2, 4, & 8.
Since 1969 Urve Tauts performed in concert with the organ, at first with Hugo Lepniim and Rolf Uussåh, later with Kristina Hoidre (in Tallinn and Tartu, at the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Society, at the Kaunas and Vilnius picture galleries, at the Riga Dom concert hall, the Leningrad Cappella, the Moscow Conservatoire’s Grand Hall). With the opening during the 1983-1984 season of a concert hall and museum in the Niguliste Church, her appearance in her native city became even more frequent. .
From 1974 to 1978 Urve Tauts worked as a singing teacher at G. Otsa Tallinn School of Music; since 1978 the Estonian Academy of Music. Her awards include: People's Artist of the Estonian SSR in 1974 and G. Otsa Prize in 1980. She was married to Ülo Raudmäe (died in October 1990). |
