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EESTI ELU reedel, 22. novembril 2019 — Friday, November 22, 2019
Donor Profile: Anne-Mai Kaunismaa Kalevipoja Laud The strength and support of the Estonian community has always been a strong touchpoint for Anne-Mai Kaunismaa and her family. Now, Anne-Mai is taking her turn at helping build a bright future with a $100,000 donation to the International Estonian Centre (IEC). “This gift is from my family in memory of my husband Sulev Valdur, who passed away on December 20 of last year, four days before our 59th wedding anniversary,” she said. “He would be pleased and proud to support the future in this very meaningful way.” Anne-Mai, who lives in Burlington, Ontario has three daughters: Liisa lives in New Jersey with her husband Dan and daughters Kariina and Kaila; Riina and Toivo live in Victoria Harbour near Midland, Ontario have two sons KarlLembit and Eerik and Tiina and Jamie live in Burlington and have a daughter, Victoria and a son Wesley. Tiina’s daughter Ingrid passed away several years ago. Estonian traditions weave in to the Kaunismaa family through the genera tions. Wesley and his new wife Meg, who live in Boston, learned to dance “Tuljak”, a traditional Estonian folk dance, at their recent wedding in Cape Cod. Fascinated by his Estonian roots, Wesley was also a counsellor at the Estonian summer camp.
EMW2019… (Continued from page 12)
I’m sure will be taking the jazz world by storm very soon. Bringing in a bit of Christmas cheer was a visit by Old Saint Nick himself, who had plenty of prizes and gifts to give out to attendees. As post-dinner enter tainment, famed Estonian singer-songwriter Vaiko Eplik took over DJ duties and spun records that many were familiar with, featuring local musicians from our own community such as Peeter Kopvillem and the Lindau Sisters while mixing in others from Estonian communi ties in Sweden, Australia, and Germany just to name a few. Vaiko’s music choice was mainly comprised of the artists that he complied for his 3 CD collec tion of music from Estonian diaspora communities from around the world. Night two of the festival took place at the Artscape Sandbox on November 15th, a new dis covery for many but a great and contemporary venue for show casing musical talent of all kinds. The night was supported by festival sponsor the Estonian Foundation of Canada. The fes tival’s artistic director Toomas Treumuth had a few welcoming words for the attendees of the concert. The host for the night was none other than Jaymz Bee of Jazz FM and Jazz Safari fame. His charisma and humou rous quirkiness were a perfect match for the evening. Stepping up on stage first was Mari Sild, an Estonian who lives and deals with music as a hobby in
“My grandchildren are very in terested in their Estonian roots, which I think is very positive.” This patriotism is also a strong tradition for the family. “It was ingrained in us at a very early age to support the Estonian community no matter what.” She remembers as well how her mother-in-law Marta, who lived to age 98, would regularly join demonstrations to support Estonian independence. “The Estonian House was our second home for many years,” recounts Anne-Mai. “Our daughters went to Estonian school and guides, and be came guide and cub-scout leaders. Both my husband and I served on the board of the Toronto Estonian House on separate terms and were deeply involved in many activities.” Anne-Mai has direct experience with the reality of the current Estonian House on Broadview Avenue. She was the auditor for the board for several years, and witnessed how use of the house has declined and its condition deteriorated. “The community is not using it any more, as they used to, they are going to other places to hold events, and it is simply not sustainable,” she said. “That’s why this new centre is so excit ing. It will inject a feeling of enthu siasm and support in the community. I am very much looking forward to using it, meeting my friends there and going to what I’m sure will be many interest ing events.”
Daughters (from left) Liisa, Riina and Tiina with parents Anne-Mai and Sulev Kaunismaa.
She believes the downtown loca tion of the IEC is a plus. “It is easier for me to get to than the Estonian House on Broadview. I just hop on the Go Train from Burlington, and then catch the subway from Union Station to the Spadina station. This is really convenient for people who live in the city, and outside of the city as I do,” she explains. She also says that having one cen tral location will help bring and keep the Estonian community together. (The IEC will be located adjacent to Tartu College, a vibrant hub for Estonian events.) Anne-Mai and Sulev Valdur were innovative businesspeople. They start
ed a business called Kaval (which means “clever” in Estonian) – and it was exactly that. The couple developed a product that uses radio frequencies to enable communications in subway tunnels, and subsequently counted the Toronto Transit Commission and the transit authorities in Los Angeles and Turkey among their customers. For Anne-Mai, the IEC represents the full circle of Estonian activities in which she’s been involved since a very young age. This included trips to Estonia every five years to celebrate her husband’s birthday, and the family visited there for the 2014 song festival to mark his 80th milestone. This past summer it was Estonia’s 100th anniver
Montreal. With her flamboyant costume and own definite brand of soul and pop, she caught the attention of all in the room and started off the night with a righteous spark. For those that know of Estonian jazz and soul singer Hedvig Hanson, Mari’s vocals were reminiscent of her in terms of timbre and tone. Her music had various apparent in fluences, from Latin and Afri can rhythms to rap and funk and was presented in English, Estonian, and French. Next up was a homegrown star from our own community, Kaili Kinnon along with her band. Seeing Kaili a few times, I was amazed to find that already during the first song, her talent and music had blossomed into something even more than before. Talking to Kaili, we discussed what exactly to call her music and both settled on some variant of soul pop. Her voice has an Adele-like power with an added dose of sultriness and soul. Kaili’s music has elements of several genres; soul, pop, funk and RnB. There is an infectious groove in her songs that makes it absolutely impossible not to bop along with. As an added bonus, she had no problems getting the audience to sing along with several of her tunes. As a final performer for the night, the eclectic neo-folk duo Puuluup from Estonia put on a humorous and fun-filled show that caught several by pleasant surprise. They had a delightful and witty sense of humour while also teaching people about the instruments they were using, namely the hiiu kannel or
talharpa. Mixing looping tech nology into their songs created another merging of technology and music for a delightful musi cal experience. Later on in the set, local talent Eric Soostar and members of the Tiki Collective, Great Bob Scott and Ernie Toller, joined the band on stage for an even more heightened experience. Night number three of the festival came to a fantastic head with the electronic music wizard NOËP from Estonia bringing people of all ages to a dancing craze at The Hideout on Saturday night. Partnering with Indie Music Week helped bring and introduce the amazing musician to people outside of the Estonian community. This night was a chance for the younger generations of our community to get together and experience contemporary Esto nian pop music at its finest. NOËP created an otherwordly electronic soundscape that it was impossible not to get lost in, with his own brilliant vocals adding a whole ohter dimension to the experience. At times it felt as if there was no barrier between the audience and performer, that they had merged into one. The artist created his own little world within the space of the club. The evening was supported by festival spon sor the Estonian Credit Union. On Sunday, the festival had (too quickly) made it to its final night at one of our community’s homes Tartu College, but what a fitting end for EMW it was. Around the hall were 26 of artist Laani Heinar’s stunning prints of musicians and themes
relating to this year’s festival which were also available for purchase. Piret Noorhani, festi val director, once again stepped up to the microphone to offer closing remarks and a thank you to sponsors and volunteers for their involvement in the festival. The musical portion started off with another of our local Estonian talents Tiina Kiik per forming a piece on the accor dion by Estonian-Canadian composer Udo Kasemets writ ten specifically for her, titled “Satan’s Swing (Kuradi Kiik).” The song was based on an opti cal illusion which became apparent once hearing the piece. The shape of the melody did indeed resemble a swing and the “hellish” part mentioned in the title came out in the stra tegically placed dissonance throughout the piece. It turned out to be very meditative and mentally stimulating, taking the listener on a journey that the composer intended. Closing out the festival was esteemed Esto nian singer-songwriter Vaiko Eplik who has released over twenty albums to date in the span of his career. Vaiko’s ability to tell stories through his music is just amazing. With interesting and captivating chord progres sions, he builds and resolves tension in a great way. His immese talent as a vocalist and guitarist is very apparent when listening to his music. With little bits of charm and humour interspersed between the pieces, Vaiko created a cozy atmo sphere and fantastic ending to the festival. It was apparent as to just
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sary and the 2019 song festival, and the Kaunismaa family traveled to Estonia to lay some of Sulev Valdur’s ashes next to his sister Endla’s resting place. Endla died in 1944 and is in terred at Metsakalmistu, a cemetery in Tallinn. “All six grandchildren were there,” she said. “My husband wanted very much to keep the Estonian spirit alive in Canada. We have done well, we are very fortunate to be here and I know he would be highly supportive of the fact that we are able to give back this way.” Get involved and help support our future The International Estonian Centre’s capital campaign donor categories are Kalevipoja Laud for gifts over $100,000 (including naming rights for specific areas), Viru Vanemad for gifts over $10,000, and Kungla Rahvas for gifts up to $10,000. The Kungla Rahvas campaign will launch in early 2020. To make a donation, please contact Urve Tamberg at donations@estoniancentre.ca. Donations may be made as a family gift, or in honour of an individual or family. All Canadian and U.S. donations will be issued a tax receipt. Keep in touch and find out what’s happening! • Check out our website – it is updat ed regularly with all the latest news and information: www.estoniancentre. ca • Please sign up for our email news letter on our website and get the latest news right to your inbox. • Follow us on Facebook, too: @ EestiKeskus
how the festival has grown and prospered within a year and it will only continue to grow and prosper. The Estonian Music Week team would like to thank all of its sponsors, including VEMU, the Estonian Foun dation of Canada and the Esto nian Credit Union, Eesti Kultuu riministeerium, Integratsiooni Sihtasutus, Heinsoo Insurance, Toomas Koger, Vaike Külvet, Anita Genua ja Trina McRae for their support of the festival. A very big thank you also goes to all of the team members without who this would not be possible and the volunteers who helped along with keeping things running smoothly. I think it’s safe to say that everyone is anxiously awaiting the next Estonian Music Week!
Quotes My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now that when people wave at me, they use all their fingers. Jimmy Carter (US president 1977 to 1981) The first time I see a jogger smiling, I’ll consider it.
Joan Rivers
The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so. Gore Vidal I’m addicted to placebos. Steven Wright It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. Epictetus Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. Sicilian Proverb
