About Jaan Hargel
Jaan (Joann) Hargel (30 November 1912 – 30 January 1966) was an Estonian conductor, music teacher, oboe and flute player. == Education and career as an instrumentalist == Jaan Hargel's life as a musician began at the orchestra of Tallinn Secondary School of Science and continued at other orchestras in Tallinn where he played the piccolo, the flute, the oboe or the English horn. In 1940 he graduated from Tallinn Conservatoire (now the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) specialising in oboe in the class of Mikhail Prokofiev. During his studies, he also furthered his education at Helsinki Conservatoire (now the Sibelius Academy) under Professor Eero Viiki and played in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1934–37 and 1941–44, he worked in the orchestra of the Estonia Theatre (now the Estonian National Opera) and from 1937–41 in the Symphony Orchestra of the State Broadcasting Company (now the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra). == Career as a conductor == In 1944, Jaan Hargel was invited to play in the orchestra of the Vanemuine Theatre where, in the difficult post-war years, he could soon try his hand at conducting. His debut as a conductor was in 1944 with August Kitzberg's drama Before Cock's Crow at Dawn with incidental music by Richard Ritsing. This was soon followed by Leo Fall's operetta Der fidele Bauer and the first opera – Eugen Kapp's Flames of Revenge (1945). Conducting at the Vanemuine became Jaan Hargel's life's work – 22 years in total (1944–66), including six seasons (1946–52) as the principal conductor of the theatre. More than 70 operas, ballets and operettas were staged at the Vanemuine under Jaan Hargel's conduction.
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