The Lion's Bride. Karis Trass and Rasmus Andreas Raide • "Lõvipruut – armastuse varjatud palged"

Chamber music evening "The Lion's Bride – The Hidden Faces of Love"

A romantic musical and poetic journey

J. Brahms, F. Liszt, R. Schumann, C. Debussy, and others.

Why does the lion kill his bride? This question arises when considering the lyrics of the concert's central song – a tragic love story that reveals how fragile the boundaries between affection and destruction can be.

The concert takes the listener on a journey through the different shades of love – the first intoxication and closeness, responsibility and expectations, inner conflict and longing. How does responsibility give rise to discontent, and loyalty to jealousy? Why is the human heart so fragile and yet so strong, so eager to belong and yet so thirsty for freedom, so primal and yet so restrained?

Can the heart be reconciled, and is it possible to find peace?

Romantic music, poetic text, and deep emotions intertwine in a concert that touches everyone who has ever loved or found themselves in the throes of love.

Karis Trass (mezzo-soprano) is one of Estonia's most outstanding young singers and has been an opera soloist at the Estonian National Opera since the 2021/2022 season. She has been awarded the Naan Põllu Prize by the Estonia Society and the Mati Palm Scholarship by the Estonian National Culture Foundation. In 2022, she won the SEB Audience Award and in 2024, she received the Kristallkingake Award from the Estonian Theater Union for her performance as Mélisande in Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande. In addition to the role of Mélisande, her repertoire includes roles such as Stephano (Gounod's Romeo and Juliet), Siébel (Gounod's Faust), Cherubino (Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro), The Child (Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges), Valencienne (Lehár's The Merry Widow), and Flora (Verdi's La traviata).

Karis Trass has performed as a soloist in several large-scale works, singing alto/second soprano solos in works such as Bach's Magnificat with the Estonian National Opera Orchestra, Mozart's Vesperae solemnes de confessore with the Veronika Portsmuth Choir Academy, and Dvorak's "Stabat Mater" with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO).

Trass is also an active chamber musician. She collaborates with Sten Lassmann, Rasmus Andreas Raide, and Jaanika Rand-Sirp, with whom she has given several chamber concerts at Kadriorg Palace, Vanemuine Concert Hall, and Estonia Concert Hall.

Her music studies began at the Nõmme Music School, where she studied flute (teacher Marika Olesk). She began studying singing at the Georg Ots Music School with Ludmilla Dombrovska-Keis. She continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre under Heli Veskus, where Trass earned a bachelor's degree in 2019 and a master's degree cum laude in 2022. At the same time, she studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin under Anna Samuil. Karis Trass is the winner of the 2025 Estonian Cultural Endowment's annual award for music.

Rasmus Andreas Raide is a prominent Estonian pianist who regularly gives concerts both as a soloist and chamber musician.

He began his music studies with Ell Saviauk and Martti Raide at the Tallinn Music High School, graduating with a gold medal in 2014. This was followed by studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music in Professor Kalle Randalu's piano class, where he obtained a master's degree summa cum laude in 2021.

Raide has performed as a soloist with the Latvian RSO, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Jyväskylä SO, Narva SO, and has appeared at the Berlin Concert Hall and the Pärnu Music Festival, among others. He has furthered his studies in master classes with Menahem Pressler, Prof. Alfredo Perl, Prof. Natalia Trull, and Francois Killian.

He has been playing in the Trio '95 ensemble with Robert Traksmann and Marcel Johannes Kits since 2003. In March 2012, the trio won first prize at the Pavasario Sonata International Chamber Ensemble Competition in Lithuania. In March 2020, the trio won first prize at the Ilmari Hännikäinen International Chamber Ensemble Competition, in September 2021, they won first prize and three special prizes at the international piano chamber music competition Tallinn 2021, and in May 2025, they won first prize and a special prize at the international Johannes Brahms chamber music competition in Gdańsk. In addition to Estonia, they have performed in Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, and Lithuania. Trio '95 is the winner of the 2020 annual award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment's Music Foundation.

Photo by Siiri Kumari