Photo: Herkki-Erich Merila

Kristjan-Jaanek Mölder (bass) graduated from the Tallinn Secondary School of Music in 2012, having studied singing with Uku Joller and choral conducting with Ingrid Kõrvits. He got his bachelor’s degree from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, again with double majors – in choral conducting (Ants Soots’s class) in 2015 and classical vocal performance (Juhan Tralla’s class) in 2017. Kristjan-Jaanek received his master’s degree in classical vocal performance (Juhan Tralla’s class) from the Estonian Academy of Theatre and Music in 2020 and from the  Salzburg Mozarteum  (Professor Michele Crider’s class) in 2021.  At the Mozarteum he also studied Lied with Pauliina Tukiainen and Stephan Genz. He has attended masterclasses of Lioba Braun, Tuuli Lindeberg and Erki Pehk. He has been pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Tallinn University since 2021.

Kristjan-Jaanek has won prizes at a number of vocal competitions – second prize and the Public Choice Award at the Mart Saar Competition (2017), fourth place at the Jean Sibelius International Singing Competition in Turku (2017) and first place at the Lied duo competition organised by the Estonian Academy of Theatre and Music (2018), and been a semifinalist at the Haydn Competition in Rohrau (2019) and a  finalist at the Vello Jürna Singing Competition (2020).

Kristjan-Jaanek has appeared in operas, for example as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2017) and Orlando in Handel’s Orlando (2020), both at the opera studio of the Estonian Academy of Theatre and Music, and as Nathanael / Spalanzani / Dapertutto in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann (2021, Salzburg opera studio).

Kristjan-Jaanek’s favourite repertoire is vocal chamber music and his most unforgettable performance so far was singing Schubert’s cycle A Poet’s Love in concert. In his free time Kristjan-Jaanek dances in the Lee folk dance group.