From Percussion Rooms of the World Vol.19｜Tallinn, Estonia Kentaro Tanino

My name is Kentaro Yano, and I am the principal timpani player of the Estonian National Opera Orchestra. I would like to tell you a little about my life and work in Estonia. Although the writing is clumsy, I would appreciate it if you could read it until the end.

●About Estonia

Before I talk about my workplace and work, I would like to briefly touch on Estonia. Estonia is one of the Baltic countries, along with Latvia and Lithuania. It is located on the southern side of Finland across the Gulf of Finland, about a two-hour ferry ride away, and the distance from the capital Tallinn to Helsinki is less than 100 km in a straight line. It is a small country with a land area about half that of Hokkaido, a total population of just under 1.4 million, and the capital Tallinn, with a population of just over 400,000. Even in Tallinn, the capital and largest city, this population means that the atmosphere of the city is very calm and relaxed.

The official language is Estonian, but many people, especially the younger generation, speak English, and since I'm still new to Estonian, I use English to get around when I don't understand Estonian. Estonia is famous as an IT powerhouse (it is the birthplace of Skype), and this is particularly evident in the fact that many of the procedures and applications for administrative services can be done online (come to think of it, the only time I have ever been to the city hall was when I was sightseeing, and I have never gone there for formalities, etc.). As someone like me who is not yet familiar with Estonian, I am very relieved to be able to proceed at my own pace while translating difficult Estonian for important procedures.

Being a northern country, the summers are easy and the winters are very cold, but since I was born in Hokkaido, it's similar to my hometown, and I think I was able to adapt to it from an early age without any particular problems other than the difference in the amount of sunlight between summer and winter.

●Work at an opera house

Most of the performances take place at the Estonian National Opera House. Generally, Mondays are public holidays, Tuesdays are rehearsals, and Wednesdays through Sundays are performances, but there may be rehearsals for other programs during the day of the performance. Of course, it depends on your shift, so you won't be able to work on all of them, but in some cases you may have to work twice, once during the day and once at night, and it gets busy during these times.

For programs that are already in the repertoire (songs that have been performed many times in the past and are included in the program every year), there will be only one general production (two or three times for difficult pieces) before the first performance of that program in the season, and after that, unless there is a large gap, only the actual performance will be performed. Depending on your shift, you may be required to attend the actual performance without attending the rehearsal, and the same program often has a different conductor, so the ability to respond flexibly is required during the actual performance. In addition to regular performances, gala concerts and symphony concerts are held about three or four times a year. Although the number has decreased somewhat due to the coronavirus pandemic, approximately 300 performances are generally held throughout the year. Although not all performances are accompanied by orchestral accompaniment, the number of performances is large, as there are times when there are two performances per day, and sometimes the orchestra is split up to perform in local areas and in the home country at the same time. Also, as mentioned above, you will be working 6 days a week, with Monday being the only public holiday, so you will have a longer summer vacation instead.

The theater is not a very large hall with a seating capacity of 800, and the orchestra pit is not very large either.

The space for percussion instruments is quite small, and placement is always a challenge when using many instruments. In addition, the percussion section has a total of five members, four full-time and one half-time (a member who works half the number of shifts as a full-time member), but since there is an upper limit on the number of shifts per month, it is necessary to hold multiple instruments as much as possible in order to avoid too many shifts per person and to perform as many performances as possible. Timpani players are no exception. The most difficult task recently was moving from the timpani to the large drum, hitting it a few times, then quickly returning to the timpani and playing the solo... It's a rough job that can be forgiven because you can't really see it from the audience seats, which are unique to the pit. It reminds me of my time in the brass band in middle school and high school. The repertoire we perform varies from opera and ballet works to musicals and children's works. The ballet ``Kratt (Goblin)'' by Eduard Tubin, a representative Estonian composer, is one of the most important repertoire of works by Estonian composers (it was also one of the repertoires for this company's audition). We are also active in premiering new works, including completely new operas by Estonian composers and ballets based on existing orchestral works.

●About musical instruments

Currently, at my workplace, we use Adams' Schnellar Amsterdam model for the timpani, and we also use Adams's large drum and glockenspiel. My main drums are Pearl and my cymbals are Sabian, but for suspended cymbals I use Turkish and other types depending on the song. It seems that these instruments were purchased shortly before I joined the group, and up until then they had been using almost all Premier instruments (for the timpani, they had been using YAMAHA). Around the end of the 1970s, when Estonia was under Soviet rule, the Ministry of Culture had an opportunity to purchase percussion instruments in bulk, and the company they purchased them from was Premier (it seems they also purchased from Musser). By the way, I still use the chime and vibraphone that I purchased at that time in production. Currently, we purchase musical instruments, mallets, parts, etc. directly from manufacturers, or from music stores in Finland and Germany.

●Finally

I think the strength of working at an opera house is that you get to experience a lot of both dramatic and orchestral works. This is my third year since joining the team in 2019, and I am finally getting used to life and work. From now on, I would like to not only improve my own skills, but also actively experience various things that can only be experienced here, such as music that is rooted in the region.

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Kentaro Tanino Profile

Graduated from Hokkaido University of Education, Iwamizawa School, Art Course, Music Course, and completed research studentship at the same university. Performed at the same university's graduation concert. After working as a freelance musician, he studied abroad at Kodarts University of the Arts (formerly Rotterdam Conservatory) in the Netherlands, where he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees. While attending school, he passed the audition for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Kodarts Academy and received instruction from members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He also passed the NJO (Netherlands National Youth Orchestra) audition for two consecutive years and participated in their summer and winter tours. Since 2019, he has been principal timpanist of the Estonian National Opera Orchestra.