Mati Turi

Turi’s international solo career as an opera singer took off in 2005 with his role as Juhana in Joonas Kokkonen’s opera The Last Temptations at Tampere Opera (Finland). As a freelance singer, he has performed at the Finnish National Opera, the Nationale Reisopera in Enschede, Netherlands, in Theater Chemnitz and Stuttgart Opera in Germany, at the Estonian National Opera and Vanemuine Theatre in Estonia, in productions by Opera North and Longborough Festival Opera in the UK, and Nargen Opera in Estonia.

As a chamber singer, Mati Turi’s long-time partner has been pianist Martti Raide with whom the collaboration began in 2007. Every season, the duo has presented at least one new vocal program, performing in Estonia, the USA, Canada, Russia, and Germany.

Turi has received numerous accolades, including the Estonian Cultural Endowment Annual Award (2002), the Cultural Endowment’s “Live and Shine!” scholarship (2007), the Estonian Music Council and Cultural Endowment Award (2012), the Estonian Theatre Award for Best Musical Production of the Year (2014) for his role as Tannhäuser in Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser (Estonian National Opera), the Georg Ots Award (2018), and in 2022, an award for his portrayal of Tristan in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (Vanemuine Theatre), Dr. S in Michael Nyman’s chamber opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Tuuri in Veljo Tormis’s and Rasmus Puur’s opera Lalli, or There is a Man in the Middle of the Sea (Tallinn Philharmonic Society).

Turi graduated from the Heino Eller Tartu Music School (1988) in choral conducting and later from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (1996), where he studied conducting under Ants Üleoja. He further honed his singing skills with Ervin Kärvet and, since 2005, with Jaakko Ryhänen in Finland. From 1992 to 2004, Mati Turi sang in the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, frequently performing as a soloist.