Estonian Theatre and Music Museum

Estonian Theatre and Music Museum was founded March 22, 1924 to preserve the collected materials of an Estonian composer Peeter Süda (1883- 1920). P. Süda's valuable collections of folksongs, notes and specialized library are the cornerstones of today's Estonian Theatre and Music Museum.

The founder of the museum was an artist and antique collector August Pulst.

From 1934 the museum is housed in the Old Town of Tallinn's medieval tower of Assauwe and its additional building.

The Union of the Theatre Museum joined with the Museum of Music in 1941. The theater collection is based on the materials gathered by Estonian actor and producer Heino Vaks (1886- 1943).

Estonian Theatre and Music Museum collects, preserves, studies and introduces the Estonian theatre and musicale life. The museum organizes exhibitions, concerts and discussion evenings. In the summer time some museum events take place in the small courtyard of Assauwe.

Estonian Theatre and Music Museum has a music and theatre department. We have a unique musical and theatrical library, large note archive, collections of art, photos and films.

The music department has a distinguished collection of many famous Estonian composers handwritten notes and documents. The collection has materials about Estonian conductors, musicians, choirs, orchestras and musical societies.

The theatre department offers a good overview of the Estonian theatre history and status of today, collections of play-programs, photos, reviews, learning materials and drafts of the theatrical costumes and stage designs. Many interesting materials are demonstrated on the exhibitions, been published and used for the theme-events.

The library is a great source of theatre and music publications (books, magazines, newspaper articles).

The art collection contains paintings, graphic art, sculptures, caricatures, costumes, posters and stage designs.

An important part of the Estonian Theatre and Music Museum is an apartment-museum of Andres Särev (1902- 1970). The four-room apartment was a home for an Estonian producer and actor Andres Särev and his wife Anna in 1938-1980. The homely atmosphere is created by a display of his family belongings. The theatrical exhibitions are decorating the walls and the apartment can be a adventure for children, who can play with the real theatre puppets and try on costumes, hats and wigs from the stage.

The permanent exhibition of the musical instruments, catches the attention with a variety of different home-organs, folk-, brass- and string-instruments. The charmer of the mechanical music-interments is a "Boy with a piglet", what works based on a clockwork. Visitors can use the help of a professional guide to enjoy our exhibitions better. The theatre department offers a theatrical lecture for schools and drama-clubs.

Museum is an owner of Heino Eller's (1887- 1970) copyrights and since 1998 once a year gives out an award to an accomplished Estonian musician. H. Eller is a noted founder of Estonian symphonic- and chamber music.

By reservation only