Kaljo Raid

Kaljo Raid ( born March 4, 1921 in Tallinn, † January 21, 2005 in Richmond Hill ) was an Estonian composer, who was after his emigration to Canada as pastor of the Estonian Baptist church.

Life and work

Raid studied at the Estonian Music Academy in Tallinn Heino Eller. 1944, the year of his graduation, the Orchestra of the Estonian Broadcasting Corporation played his first symphony. In the same year he forced the events of the second world war to emigrate, first to Sweden. In 1945 he began the study of theology in Stockholm, which he continued from 1946 to 1949 in the United States at the Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre (Massachusetts ). In the U.S., he also took lessons from Jacques Ibert and Darius Milhaud, and taught music at Bethel College in St. Paul. 1954 Raid moved to Canada, where he was pastor until 1989 at the Estonian Baptist Church in Toronto. For several years he served as Chairman of the Union of Estonian Baptist Abroad and was involved in regular radio broadcasts for Estonians in the world. Extensive travels have taken him to Australia, South America and Israel.

After his retirement in 1989, Raid devoted returned to more music. His compositional work includes, among others, four symphonies. In 1993 he completed the dedicated to the life of the early Christian martyr Polycarp Opera Fiery Chariots. At the request of the conductor Neeme Järvi he completed the orchestration of the 1st movement of the left by his older countryman Eduard Tubin Symphony as a fragment 11.