The Compositions page of this website is now (almost) complete, with references to 84 works by Arvo Pärt, spanning his entire career. The page is sorted by date of composition in descending order (most recent first). Each entry contains information about the composition date, title, source, duration and text (in the case of choral works). In most cases, you can also find the score catalogue number with links to purchase them.

In honor of Arvo Pärt's 75th birthday in 2010, abstracts are invited for possible inclusion in a collection being considered for publication by a major international publisher and for presentation at a symposium on the composer to be held in Boston, MA in 2010.
Abstracts of around 250 words on any subject related to Pärt and his music will be considered. Possible topics include:
Biography — Pre-tintinnabula works — Analytical studies of individual works or groups or work — Pärt and twenty-first century spirituality — Comparative studies (for example, different settings of the Passion with Pärt's Passio) — Pärt and the new minimalists (for example, Tavener and Górecki) — Pärt and popular culture — Pärt's choral music — Pärt's film music — Analyses (especially those that define new methodologies for analyzing the tintinnabula works) — Performance practice — Reception history.
The initial deadline for abstracts is Friday 1 August 2008, though interest and questions may be addressed to the editor, Andrew Shenton (shenton@bu.edu), at any time.
Abstracts should be emailed as Word attachments and should include the author’s institutional affiliation (if any) and contact information. Please note that if accepted, the final essay of around 8,000 words will need to be submitted by early 2009.

The Sonning Music Foundation will be awarding the composer Arvo Pärt the Léonie Sonning Prize — the most important distinction in the Danish music world — on 22 May 2008 at a celebratory concert in Copenhagen, conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste. Besides Cantus, L'abbé Agathon and In principio, the programme also includes the première of These words..., a new 15-minute work for strings and percussion. It is based on the human foibles mentioned in the old Church Slavonic prayer from the Canon to the Guardian Angel. A separate concert will also take place on 20 May, with a full programme of Pärt's works by the Ars Nova Choir and the Athelas Sinfonietta under Paul Hillier.

The celebrated conductor Mstislav Rostropovich has died today at the age of 80. The maestro died in Moscow after a long illness. He was born in Baku, Azerbaijan (then USSR), in 1927, and started learning the cello at the early age of 10. He studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers were Shostakovich and Prokofiev. He lived in exile in the United States between 1974 until the fall of communism. During this time he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Rostropovich's cello repertory was vast and included works by the great composers of the 20th century: Schnittke, Britten, Lutoslawski, Shostakovich, Messiaen, Prokofiev and Arvo Pärt, among many others.
Obituary: Mstislav Rostropovich (BBC News)

The Best Choral Performance Grammy was awarded to Paul Hillier, conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, for Arvo Pärt's Da Pacem. The 49th Annual Grammy Awards were handed out on 11 February 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Da Pacem includes the first commercial recordings of Zwei schlawische Psalmen (Psalms 117 and 131) and was released last September by the label Harmonia Mundi.
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According to Reuters news agency and other sources, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has decided to dedicate all performances of his music during the 2006-07 season to the slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (see photo). "Anna Politkovskaya gave all her talent and energy, and eventually her life, so that people would know and be aware of the appalling crimes being committed in Russia ... In my grief at such a tragic loss, I ... would like to make a memorial gesture," the composer has declared. Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead when she was leaving her Moscow apartment on 7 October 2006. She was the recipient of many awards, including the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.