Latvia · Presidency of the Council of the European Union

The corrected issue is the Estonian 2-euro commemorative coin marking the 150th birthday of Miina Härma. The composer, organist, choir conductor and music educator was born in 1864 and died in 1941. She was one of the first Estonian women to receive professional musical training. She received this training at the conservatory in Saint Petersburg (Sankt Petersburg), as no comparable educational opportunity existed in Estonia, which at the time belonged to the Russian Empire.

Härma’s work is closely associated with Estonian choral culture. She mainly wrote choral works and songs, including settings of Estonian-language texts. She also conducted choirs, performed as an organist and taught music. She spent a large part of her life working in Tartu. A school there where she had taught now bears her name.

Choral singing in Estonia had not only a musical but also a social function. Since the 19th century, choirs from different parts of the country had come together at song festivals. The use of the Estonian language and the cultivation of shared songs strengthened the cultural identity of the Estonian-speaking population during Russian rule. This tradition continued after state independence. The peaceful mass demonstrations of the late 1980s, known as the “Singing Revolution”, also drew on it.

The 2014 coin issue commemorated Härma’s 150th birthday. Her selection can therefore be explained both by the anniversary and by her connection to a form of culture that is closely linked to language and national identity in Estonian history. The coin design shows her portrait, thus directly referring to the honoured musician.