Kaia Urb (soprano) is one of the most acclaimed oratorio singers in Estonia and abroad. She graduated from the Tallinn State Conservatoire and continued her studies with Lilian Gentele in Stockholm. Between 1982 and 2016 Kaia was a much appreciated soloist and choir singer of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Currently she is engaged as a vocal coach and a member of Artistic Board of the EPCC.
Kaia has worked with many renowned conductors, such as Tõnu Kaljuste, Neeme Järvi, Paul Mägi, Paul Hillier, Olari Elts, Juha Kangas, Saulius Sondeckis and others, and various ensembles and orchestras, including the Hilliard Ensemble, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Estonian early music ensemble Hortus Musicus, Estonian contemporary music ensemble NYYD, the chamber orchestras of Lithuania, Prague, Australia etc.
Kaia’s repertoire ranges from baroque music to contemporary works. She has sung solos in all of J. S. Bach’s oratorios and in many cantatas, Händel’s ‘Messiah’, ‘Judas Maccabeus’ and ‘Dixit Dominus’, Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas’, Monteverdi’s ‘Vespro della Beata Virgine”, Respighi’s ‘Lauda per la natività del Signore’, Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’, Haydn’s ‘Creation’ and masses, Mozart’s Requiem, ‘Vesperae solennes de Confessore’, ‘Litaniae Lauretanae’ and masses, Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’, Fauré’s Requiem, Poulenc’s ‘Gloria’, Reich’s ‘Tehillim’ and ‘Proverb’, Pärt’s ‘Passio’, ‘Miserere’, ‘Te Deum’, Berio’s ‘Sequenza III’ etc.
She is also an excellent chamber musician and gives concerts with guitarist Heiki Mätlik and the Camerata Tallinn ensemble. She has performed music by many Estonian composers such as Mägi, Sink, Tamberg, Tormis and Tulev, has recorded several CDs and has been a regular guest at many Estonian music festivals, including the Haapsalu Early Music Festival and the David Oistrach Festival.