Mari Vihmand, born in 1967 in Tartu, Estonia, studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Eino Tamberg and Lepo Sumera. She received her master‘s degree in 1997 and attended the composition classes of Gilbert Amy and Philippe Manoury at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieure Musique et Danse in Lyon from 1995 to 1997. She has lived in Bad Urach since 1997 and works as a freelance composer, choir director and music teacher.
In the 1990s, Vihmand was one of the first in Estonia to focus on the synthesis of tonal and melodic thinking. Her music combines romantic imagination and rational form and is usually inspired by poetry and literature. The wide range of her more recent works is characterised by a neo-expressionist depth of emotion.
Mari Vihmand‘s works have received prestigious awards and have been performed at numerous festivals (e.g. Estonian Music Days, International Festival for New Music NYYD, Autumn Music Days Bad Urach). Her chamber opera Lugu klaasist („A Story of Glass“), inspired by the fairy tale allegories of Hans Christian Andersen and Villy Sorensen, was honoured with the Cultural Prize of the Republic of Estonia in 1995. In 1996, the orchestral work Floreo won first prize at the „International Rostrum of Composers“, a forum organised by the UNESCO International Music Council, in the category for composers under 30 years of age. Her opera Armastuse valem („Formula of Love“), based on scenes from the novella „The Mathematics of Nina Gluckstein“ by Esther Vilar, was premiered at the Estonian National Opera in 2008.
