Estonian Traditional Music Centre
Folk music concert house in the restored manor granary on the edge of Viljandi Castle Park.
The Estonian Traditional Music Centre, known in Estonian as Pärimusmuusika Ait, opened on 28 March 2008 on the edge of Viljandi Castle Park. It grew out of the stone granary and outbuildings of the former Viljandi manor, which were restored and extended into a concert house. The complex has a main hall seating more than four hundred, a smaller hall for about eighty, and an outdoor stage in the castle hills; it also contains a shop selling records, books and folk instruments, and a cafe.
The centre works year-round as a concert venue and as the organiser of the Viljandi Folk Music Festival, held each July in the castle park and drawing performers from Estonia and abroad. It houses the August Pulst Study Centre and a traditional music information centre, which hold recordings, sheet music and archive material and run courses, workshops and seminars. Together with the folk music department of the nearby Viljandi Culture Academy, it makes the town a centre of Estonian traditional music.
Highlights
- Concert house rebuilt from the stone granary of Viljandi manor
- Main hall for over 400 and a smaller hall for around 80
- Organiser of the Viljandi Folk Music Festival each July
- August Pulst Study Centre and traditional music archive
