We’re sharing the stories of the groups from Canada that made it into the Song and Dance festival. The first stories from the female folk dance group Nou Pois Älaud and the e-chamber choir Ööbik were published in EE # 10, 14.03.2025 and EE # 15, 17.04.2025, respectively.
This time around, we’ll be talking about the Toronto Estonian Men’s Choir, a group with a distinguished history. Choir conductor Avo Kittask shared his thoughts. He began by highlighting a quote that appeared in an article about the men’s choir in Eesti Elu on April 9, 2010: “When the Toronto Estonian Men’s Choir (TEM) was founded, no one thought it would ever celebrate its tenth anniversary, let alone its sixtieth. Everyone was convinced that returning to their homeland was only a matter of time.”
Of the 16 founding members who gathered on October 6, 1950 in the rooms of the Finnish Church in Toronto, almost all had taken up choral singing either in refugee camps or earlier in their homeland. Out of this small group sprouted one that included more than 100 song brothers, who experienced the joy of singing themselves, and shared it with others. Two of the founding members of the choir still sing in the ranks of TEM today. Currently, the choir has about 45 members.
Over the past 60 years, TEM's repertoire has included over 1,000 songs and the same amount of concerts/performances and concert tours that have taken the men across Canada and the USA, Europe, to song festivals in their homeland, and other centers.
The baton has been held by our best conductors – long-time maestros Dr. Roman Toi and Mag. Charles Kipper; as well as August Kiilaspea (first conductor), Harri Toi, Uno Kook and Asta Ballstadt.
The men's song has instilled discipline and a sense of belonging in TEM’s song brothers, and the following has remained in the depths of their souls:
“Alati Sinule, kodumaa, kõlagu vabade meeste laul.” (“Always to You, homeland, let the song of free men ring”).
If we look at the calendar now and do a little simple math, we can see that this year TEM will reach a fairly dignified age – 75 years old. TEM is currently the only Estonian men’s choir operating abroad and has participated in all recent major song festivals since the 1990s. As part of the song festival trips, smaller tours have also been organized, during which the choir has performed with independent concerts. The number of active singers has dwindled from that mentioned earlier in this article, but there are men who are interested in and love singing and they diligently attend rehearsals on Tuesday evenings. Of the two men in the original lineup, only one remains – Enn Kiilaspea.
The Toronto Estonian Male Choir is also represented at this summer's major song festival “Iseoma” (Kinship). 11 song brothers, all of whom have sung at prior song festivals, are traveling to Estonia to sing together under the “laulukaar.”
When asked what makes him work hard and strive to get on the song stage time and time again, Avo Kittask simply answered: “The tradition of male song and the desire to sing, of course!”
The men’s choir program that will be performed at this year's song festival is composed of previously sung repertoire, but one new song – “Me peame looma sillad”(“We must build bridges,” text by Juhan Viiding) composed by Valter Soosalu is the most demanding. The new work was written specially for the XXVIII song festival.
From this year's repertoire, the song “Munamäel” (text by Juhan Kunder), composed by Karl August Hermann and arranged by Tuudur Vettik, is definitely a favorite of TEM.
As mentioned above, the Toronto Estonian Men’s Choir, like other men’s choirs in Estonia, has decreased in terms of the number of singers over the years. The Song Festival is very important – it’s great to meet fellow singers in our homeland, with whom we can chat about the existence and future of male song and discuss how our membership can be increased.
Finally, TEM would like to thank the Estonian Foundation of Canada for its strong and necessary financial support so that male song can continue to ring in Toronto.
The powerful singing of male choirs can be heard in Toronto on Friday, August 22nd at St. Peter's Church, when the Tartu Academic Men’s Choir and TEM will give a joint concert.
TEM’s website can be found here.
The Toronto Estonian Men’s Choir was interviewed by Kai Kiilaspea.
