Kadri-Ann Sumera

Kadri-Ann Sumera (born 5 August 1977) is a pianist, music teacher and writer.

Sumera was born in Tallinn in a family of musicians. Her father was a composer and mother a piano teacher. Sumera studied at Tallinn Music High School and graduated from the piano class of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre cum laude. In 2004, she acquired a master’s degree at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. Kadri-Ann Sumera has won recognition at Estonian and international competitions for pianists. In the 2004/2005 season, Kadri-Ann Sumera was a scholarship holder at Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie in Frankfurt. In the 2015/2016 academic year, she taught at Darmstadt Music Academy (Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt). She has also taught at Heino Eller Tartu Music College and Georg Ots Tallinn Music College. For a long time, Sumera has been a presenter at Klassikaraadio. She has been a member of the Association of Estonian Professional Musicians from 2004.

In 2020, Sumera published her first book, the 400-page Seitsme aja raja taga (‘Behind the Borders of Seven Times’). The book consists of short stories with autobiographical elements; they speak about the pianist’s life, for example, about the competitions and work in her student days. The author does not beautify the past but speaks about it with humour rather.

In 2022, Kadri-Ann Sumera published the novel Basiliski lapsed (‘Basilisk’s Children’). The author has stated that she found inspiration for writing from the Covid pandemic and the demonstrations related to it. There are also references to other events that stirred the public. The author has amplified the situations — the crisis is caused by the spread of rodents and hastily invented control and protection measures to curb it, global famine, extreme radicalisation of opinions and lack of cohesion in the society. The writer observes seven different characters in the turmoil of events. Choosing of sides in the crisis brings the protagonists together, and most of them participate in the apocalyptic final scene in Freedom Square in Tallinn.

Kadri-Ann Sumera has been a member of the Estonian Writers’ Union from 2023.

L. P. (Translated by I. A.)

Books in Estonian

Novels
Basiliski lapsed. Tallinn: Varrak, 2022. 302 lk.

Short prose
Seitsme aja raja taga. Tallinn: Tänapäev, 2020. 399 lk.