President Lennart Meri decided that this year's folklore awards should go to Enda Kallas, Ain Raal and Kadi Salu.

Enda Kallas, a former teacher and journalist from Pärnu County (born 1910) has contributed to the Estonian Folk Poetry Archive for more than 30 years. Last year, she sent the archive more than 150 pages of folk tales, jokes, proverbs, adages, and family lore. She has also recorded the Livian folklore.

Ain Raal, a postgraduate student of Tartu Agricultural University (born 1974), has recorded the play of the Setu accordion players, studied and recorded for future generations the already disappearing accordion playing tradition of Southern Estonia. Last year, Ain Raal contributed eight hours of high-quality digital recordings to the archive, as well as information about the pieces played and the players.

Kadi Salu, a student of Tartu University (born 1973), has collected materials on the Estonian Students' Building Unit, interviewed the former members and recorded many songs from their repertoire. Kadi Salu has made more than 15 hours of digital and monorecordings, and systematised them for archiving.

The Folklore Award of the President of the Republic will be handed over on February 23, in the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu. The amount of each award is 3,000 kroons.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, February 19, 2000

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