Biography
Short version:
Tähe-Lee Liiv is regarded as one of Estonia’s brightest rising stars in piano. In the season 2024-2025 she has been chosen to perform in the concert series Building Bridges, recommended by Sir András Schiff.
Tähe-Lee has performed in Flagey Piano Days, Järvi Pärnu Music Festival, Palermo Festival etc. She has 20 piano concertos in her repertoire and she has cooperated with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, New York Camerata Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica Orchestra and Jerusalem Kamerata Orchestra among others.
Tähe-Lee has won many national and international piano competitions, including The Ninth Competition of Estonian Pianists (I Prize, 2019).
Tähe-Lee is honoured to be RCM Scholar. Her teachers include Ivari Ilja, Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna, Dmitri Alexeev, Konstantin Bogino and since October 2022, Sir András Schiff.
In November 2023 her CD with complete Arvo Pärt piano music was released (review in Gramophone Magazine by Pwyll ap Siôn, 4.2024).
Long version:
Tähe-Lee Liiv (b.11.11.2003) is regarded as one of Estonia’s brightest rising stars in piano. She has performed in solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and as soloist with orchestras, in Europe and America – including Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Israel, UK and the U.S. In the season 2024-2025 she has been chosen to perform in the concert series Building Bridges, recommended by Sir Andras Schiff in several concert halls in Europe.
Tähe-Lee has made solo appearances in music festivals such as the Flagey Piano Days, Järvi Pärnu Music Festival, Concertino Praga in the Czech Republic, the Sibelius Festival and the Mänttä Music Festival in Finland, and the Chopin Concert Series at Chopin’s birth place in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, Menuhin Festival Piano Academy in Gstaad, Valdarno and Palermo festivals in Italy etc. She has cooperated with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, New York Camerata Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica Orchestra, Israel Jerusalem Kamerata Orchestra, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, Vaasa City Orchestra and Pärnu Town Orchestra, among others. The concertos that she has performed encompass classical concertos by Beethoven (no. 1, 4), Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Rachmaninoff (no. 2), Mendelsson (no. 1), Chopin (no. 1, 2), Haydn (D Major), and Mozart (K. 414, 466, 488), as well as such lesser-played works as Chopin’s Rondo à la Krakowiak, Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto for Piano, Violin and orchestra, Fazil Say’s “Silk Road”, Piano Concerto and the Variations for Piano, Clarinet and Orchestra by Ester Mägi, (who is generally hailed as the First Lady of Estonian Music.)
Tähe-Lee has won many national and international piano competitions, including I Prize in the International Piano Competition “Emilia ed Elsa Gubitosi” in Capri, Italy (2023); the Estonian National Television’s live-broadcast talent show “Klassikatähed” (2020); Ninth Competition of Estonian Pianists (I Prize and two Special Prizes, Tallinn, 2019); International Gershwin Music Competition (II Prize, New York, 2019); Concerto Competition ‘Theodor Leschetizky’ for Gifted Young Pianists (I Prize, New York, 2019); Festival ‘Venice Music Masters’ (Guido Alberto Fano Prize, Italy, 2019), International Piano Competition in San Dona di Piave (I Prize; Italy, 2018); “First Mart Saar Competition for Estonian Pianists 2018” (I Prize and Special Prize, Estonia, 2018).
Tähe-Lee is a graduate of the Tallinn Music High School, the Youth Department of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the Sibelius Academy’s Young Musicians International Class. Tähe-Lee is honoured to be RCM Scholar. Her teachers include Ivari Ilja, Hui-Ying Liu-Tawaststjerna, Dmitri Alexeev, Konstantin Bogino and since October 2022, Sir András Schiff. She has also had rare chance to have several lessons with Daniel Barenboim in Barenboim-Said Akademie.
In November 2023 Tähe-Lee’s debut CD was released (produced by Estonian Record Productions). This CD features the complete piano works of Arvo Pärt, the celebrated Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Liiv shares the same background, history and identity as Pärt, and her impressive interpretations demonstrate a clear and nuanced understanding of what this music is about, in both its spiritual and material forms (review in Gramophone Magazine by Pwyll ap Siôn, 4.2024)
Upcoming concerts include a premier of Marianna Liik’s Piano Concerto with Tallinn Chamber Orchestra in May 2025 and recitals in Beethoven’s house in Bonn and in Numminen and Lockenhaus festivals (summer 2025) among others.
Tähe-Lee will record CD with Finnish piano music for Da Vinci Classics in 2026.