Alisson Kruusmaa

Alisson Kruusmaa (b. 1992) is an Estonian composer living in Tallinn. Her music is best described through ethereal, fragile and spacious soundscapes featuring a delicate and sparse orchestration. The sound-world created by Alisson has breadth, light and tenderness – the lyrical sense of emotion is balanced by a crisp, clean form and rather otherwordly mode of expression.

Alisson’s music has been commissioned in Europe, Asia and the United States. Among many others, she has worked with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Orkest de Ereprijs, Phion, Pelargos Quartet, Le Cameriste Ambrosiane and Rookh Quartet. In recent years, Alisson has participated in several festivals, including the Gaudeamus Muziekweek and Andriessen Festival in the Netherlands, the international cello festival Cello Fest in Finland, Mise-En Festival and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Festival in the United States.

Throughout the years, Alisson’s music has received several recognitions. In 2013, she was awarded Erkki-Sven Tüür Young Composer’s Scholarship. In 2018, her piece “Rain” for mezzo-soprano and orchestra won the Best Composition Prize at the 24th Young Composers Meeting in the Netherlands. Alisson has been a featured composer twice at the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition in Los Angeles (2018 and 2021). In February 2022, her string quartet “Three Miniatures” was performed by the Eclipse Quartet in the University of California.

Alisson is the winner of the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2021).

Alisson Kruusmaa’s tracks

• accordion concerto (2022) by Alisson Kruusmaa
• day by day, towards lightness / movement 5 (2021) by Alisson Kruusmaa
• day by day, towards lightness (2021) by Alisson Kruusmaa
• under evening sky (2020) by Alisson Kruusmaa
• silence of birds (2017) / excerpt by Alisson Kruusmaa