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That’s when the Leigo Lakes Music Festival takes place. Concerts, everything from rock to classical, are performed on barges on the lakes. As twilight approaches, bonfires are lit on the banks (listeners sit on the opposite shore on blankets or folding chairs). Candles are distributed on the lake surface and sent into the air attached to balloons so they look like celestial objects. With nothing but trees, water and rolling hills in the vicinity, it seems all the more magical.
Neeme Järvi
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Students are accommodated at the farm, with meals in the main farmhouse. Interested conductors up to age 40 (1969 is the cutoff year) should apply by May 15. Complete information and an application form may be found at www.jarviacademy.ee
Neeme Järvi’s Summer Academy began in 2000 in Pärnu, Estonia’s “summer capital” on the Baltic Sea, as part of Pärnu’s annual David Oistrakh Festival. After a spectacular, five-hour marathon at Leigo in August, 2008, featuring 13 members of his family, Neeme Järvi he decided to introduce his conducting students to a different aspect of his native country. (To read about the 2008 event see http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/No_Place_Like_Leigo.html
Leigo has been compared to “The Shire” in “Lord of the Rings.” It is, in fact, a working farm, with no fancy hotels or touristy things. It is 10 kilometers from Otepää, so-called "winter capital“ of Estonia for its ski resorts and World Cup cross country skiing events.
Leigo Lake Music events are unique for their combination of natural beauty and high tech wizardry (colored lights, fountains, TV screens, etc.). Founder/artistic director Tõnu Tamm, a biologist and former documentary filmmaker, deserves the Frank Baum appellation for having realized his lifelong dream of uniting the two.
Browse YouTube for engrossing footage of Leigo and Lake Leigo Music. A clip from the final work on the 2008 Järvi marathon, Brahms Requiem, may be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6l0dKGDNsM