Vox Clamantis
"The level of artistry necessary to achieve the kind of living, breathing
performance given here by the Estonian choir Vox Clamantis is a rarity.
The 15 singers sound is complete, comfortable possession of the music and
its incantatory intentions – unsurprisingly, as they have extensive experience performing it, and Pärt himself was at the recording sessions."
- Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine
The Grammy Award-winning Estonian vocal ensemble Vox Clamantis brings together carefully selected singers devoted to Gregorian chant, early polyphony and contemporary music.
Founded in Tallinn in 1996 and directed by Jaan-Eik Tulve, the ensemble is known for the clarity, unity and richness of its sound, with each singer contributing to its distinctive vocal blend. Rooted in Gregorian chant, Vox Clamantis has developed a musical identity in which ancient traditions enter naturally into dialogue with contemporary composition.
Vox Clamantis’s close relationship with Arvo Pärt dates back to 1999, when the ensemble began performing his organ work Annum per annum alongside liturgical chant. Over more than twenty-five years of collaboration, Vox Clamantis has become one of the leading interpreters of Pärt’s vocal music. Pärt’s Alleluia-Tropus was written specifically for and dedicated to the ensemble, and in 2025 Vox Clamantis gave the world premiere of his Prayer to the Holy Trinity, a previously unheard work dating from 1976. The same year, ECM New Series released Arvo Pärt: And I Heard a Voice… to mark the composer’s 90th birthday. The recording received international attention and was named Album of the Year by music critic Norman Lebrecht, who concluded his review: “Just listen. You will not forget this sound for a very long while.”
Vox Clamantis’s extensive and internationally acclaimed discography also includes Filia Sion, devoted to Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony; Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry and the Grammy Award-winning Adam’s Lament; Cyrillus Kreek’s The Suspended Harp of Babel; and Music by Henrik Ødegaard. The Deer’s Cry received a Diapason d’Or, a Choc de Classica and the Estonian Album of the Year Award, while The Suspended Harp of Babel was selected by BBC Music Magazine among the outstanding classical releases of 2020. Music by Henrik Ødegaard received Estonia’s Choral Album of the Year award in 2023, and the ensemble’s collaboration with Ødegaard continues on the 2026 release Te Deum with five poems and a hymn by Jon Fosse. In 2017, Vox Clamantis received the National Culture Award of the Republic of Estonia.
Contemporary creation is central to Vox Clamantis’s artistic identity. Composers including David Lang, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Helena Tulve, Tõnu Kõrvits, Galina Grigorjeva, Tõnis Kaumann and Henrik Ødegaard have written music for the ensemble. Their collaborations have resulted in works including Helena Tulve’s Arboles lloran por lluvia, commissioned by Vox Clamantis, and David Lang’s we were, co-commissioned for the ensemble by Flagey in Brussels. The dialogue between old and new is also reflected in Ødegaard’s Meditations over St. Mary Magdalene’s Feast in Nidaros, written for Vox Clamantis and Schola Sanctæ Sunnivæ and drawing on medieval antiphons from Trondheim Cathedral.
This openness extends across different musical traditions. Vox Clamantis has worked with artists including soprano Arianna Savall, pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier, nyckelharpa player Marco Ambrosini, oud player Yair Dalal and singer Dhafer Youssef, while more recent projects have included jazz guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel. These encounters have expanded the ensemble’s musical language and, at times, given rise to programmes shaped by improvisation.
Vox Clamantis has established an extensive international presence, appearing at major festivals including the Sydney Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Manchester International Festival, La Folle Journée in France and Japan, Toronto’s 21C Music Festival, the International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico. Its concert appearances have included the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Flagey in Brussels, De Doelen in Rotterdam, De Bijloke in Ghent and Monaco Cathedral. In 2023, Vox Clamantis was among the artists invited to the Elbphilharmonie for a concert celebrating ECM founder Manfred Eicher, alongside musicians including Gidon Kremer, Avishai Cohen, Tigran Hamasyan, Joe Lovano, Anouar Brahem and the Danish String Quartet.
Recent seasons have further strengthened the ensemble’s international profile. Vox Clamantis opened Arvo Pärt’s 90th-anniversary year at the Arvo Pärt Centre in January 2025 and later performed his Passio in the Grote Zaal of the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam. The ensemble returned to Toronto for Estonian Music Week, appeared at Lund Choral Festival, and presented And I Heard a Voice… at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico. In November 2025, Vox Clamantis returned to the United Kingdom after a ten-year absence for the 90 Years of Arvo Pärt celebrations at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
The ensemble’s international activity continues in 2026 with appearances in Kraków, Austria and Macau, including a programme with Wolfgang Muthspiel, followed by further performances in Warsaw and Estonia.
The artistic director and conductor of Vox Clamantis is Jaan-Eik Tulve.
Jaan-Eik Tulve was born in Tallinn (Estonia). After obtaining his diploma in choral conducting at the Tallinn Conservatory in 1991, he learned to conduct Gregorian chant at Le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSM), where he had the diploma in 1993. He then worked at the CNSM as assistant to Louis-Marie Vigne, who had a determining influence on his musical development. He has also given many courses in Gregorian Chant, in France, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Scotland, the Faeroe Islands, Israel, Tasmania, Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia. In 1996 he took up a post teaching Gregorian Chant at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He is often invited to conduct work sessions in monasteries. In his musical training – Gregorian, in particular – Jaan-Eik Tulve has learned a great deal from his work in common with Dom Daniel Saulnier of Solesmes Abbey.
In 1992 Jaan-Eik Tulve became conductor of the Paris Gregorian Choir, with which he has appeared in many countries. In 1993 Jaan-Eik Tulve formed the Lac et Mel ensemble in Paris, for the performance of medieval polyphonic works. He also formed the female-voice section of the Paris Gregorian Choir in 1994. Finally, in 1996, he formed the Vox Clamantis ensemble in Tallinn. Many of the recordings made with Vox Clamantis have received great critical acclaim (Diapason d’Or in France, Album of the Year Award in Estonia, nomination for the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Danish Classical Radio Award). Jaan-Eik Tulve has also conducted Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National Male Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Chamber Choir, ensemble Hortus Musicus, etc.Jaan-Eik Tulve was chosen as the Musician of the Year 2017 by music editors of the Estonian Public Broadcasting.
DISCOGRAPHY
Their clarity, their precision, their sheer musicianship make them easily one of the best vocal ensembles currently active anywhere in the world.
Ivan Moody, Gramophone
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Programmes
Missa syllabica
Compilation of two masses: Missa syllabica of Arvo Pärt and Messe de Nostre Dame of Guillaume de Machaut.
The Deer's Cry
Vocal repertoire of Arvo Pärt (among them the pieces composed for Vox Clamantis)
Passio
St. John's Passion by Arvo Pärt
Kanon pokajanen
a cappella composition by Arvo Pärt
Filia Sion
Gregorian chant and early polyphony (Perotin, Guillaume de Machaut, Gilles de Binchois)
For Love is Strong
Vocal music of David Lang and Arvo Pärt
The Little Match Girl Passion
Song of Songs (composed for Vox Clamantis) and The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang
The Suspended Harp of Babel
St. John's Passion by Arvo Pärt
Estonian folk hymns and psalms of David of Cyrillus Kreek
The programme is together with Marco Ambrosini trio (two nyckelharpas and kannel)
In silence
Early polyphony and the compositions of Arvo Pärt, Cyrillus Kreek, Helena Tulve and Tõnis Kaumann
Sacrum convivium
Gregorian Chant and compositions of Maurice Duriflé, Francis Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen.
You and I
Gregorian Chant and electroacoustic compositions