Anu Tali

Anu Tali (born June 18, 1972) is an Estonian conductor. She has served as Music Director of the Sarasota Orchestra since 2013 and is co-founder of the Estonian-Finnish Symphony Orchestra which Tali and her twin sister Kadri Tali founded in 1997. Anu Tali is the orchestra's conductor and Kadri Tali the manager. The orchestra later took on the name of the Nordic Symphony Orchestra (NSO). The NSO performs five times each year and has young members from fifteen different countries. Themed concert seasons have included "The Musical Capitals of the World" (1998/1999), "Life and Death" (1999/2000), "Symphony" (2000/2001), "Musica Grande (2001/2002), "Passion or Passion" (2002/2003), "À la Russe" (2003/2004), "Face of North" (2004/2005), "Legends" (2005/2006) and "Apocalyptica" (2006/2007).
Tali was born in Tallinn. She started her musical training as a pianist, and graduated from the Tallinn Music High School in 1991. She continued her studies in the Estonian Music Academy as a conductor with Kuno Areng, Toomas Kapten and Roman Matsov. From 1998 to 2000, she studied at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory with Ilya Mussin and later with Leonid Korchmar. She began conducting studies in 1995 with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
In North America, Tali made her US conducting debut with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in January 2005.In April 2007, Tali was named Music Director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and scheduled to begin in the post September 2007. However, in November 2007, the orchestra announced that it and Tali were unable to agree on contract terms, and Tali never assumed the Manitoba post.
In the summer of 2006, Tali debuted at the Savonlinna Opera Festival with a new production of Carmen and also at the Salzburg Festival with the Mozarteum Orchestra. Her work in contemporary music includes conducting the US premiere of Heiner Goebbels' Songs of Wars I Have Seen.
Tali and the NSO made their debut recording in 2002 with "Swan Flight", for Finlandia/Warner Classics, which featured two world premiere recordings, the orchestral suites Ocean and Swan Flight by Veljo Tormis. This recording earned her the Young Artist of the Year award at the 2003 Echo Klassic Awards in Germany. She also received the Cultural Award of Estonia 2003 and the Presidential Award of Estonia in 2004. Anu Tali has also recorded Estonian music with the Frankfurt RSO. The second recording of the NSO and Tali is titled Action Passion Illusion (also on Warner Classics).
Tali made her first guest-conducting appearance with the Sarasota Orchestra in February 2011. In June 2013, the Sarasota Orchestra named Tali as its next music director, effective August 1, 2013, with an initial contract of 3 years.
Tali and her husband Hendrik Agur, director of the Gustav Adolf Grammar School in Talinn, were married in 2014, and the couple have a child, born in May 2015.