Mr. Rector,
Mr. Chairman of the Riigikogu,
Mr. Prime Minister, Ministers, and first and foremost - my dear Estonian people.

Yesterday in Yalta, we buried the Yalta Conference of 1945, the event that once cut Estonia off from Europe. Today, on a wonderful Sunday, September 12, 1999 we are opening the Music Academy that will unite Estonia to Europe. Estonia's voice must join the concert of Europe and the world, and concert here means both music and co-operation, and the latter indeed is the initial meaning of the word. This is the task of the inhabitants of this house - the students and the professors.

The louder the ring of Estonian music, the stronger our country. Art does not know great and small countries. Art only knows great talents. Estonian music is rich in them, and able to offer them both to the world and to our own people.

But do we ourselves recognise our great musical talents? Do we care for them? The Georg Ots Musical School was only named after Georg Ots when the great singer was dead. When I visited Maginot some years ago, to have a look at the old underground trenches, my guide was a French youngster, a young man in huge military boots from a nearby village. When I asked him what he knew of Estonia, he said he knew next to nothing. He just said that whenever Neeme Järvi conducted in Paris, he would be there. Listening. This was the young Frenchman's relation to Estonia. A tiny bit. But collecting such bits and pieces, also a small country, also Estonia can break through this wall of ignorance with which the alien power tried to surround us so conscientiously. Art, especially music - with the help of Neeme Järvi, the generous supporter of this house - is one of the means we can use. If we give it due appreciation, if our public is able to see the Estonian talents and value them duly, Estonia will last forever. Let the talents given to us bear the fruit of concord.

This way, we will be able to promote the name of Estonia, the Estonian State, but first and foremost art as such, the universal language of the world, the world's strongest cement. Therefore, I am moved by the wish of so many musicians to give the building we are opening, our Music Academy, the name of Neeme Järvi. Nobody has done more than Neeme Järvi to make the Estonian art known to the world. I wholeheartedly support your proposal.

With these words, I would like to declare the Neeme Järvi Estonian Music Academy open, and I hope that the doors of this house would remain open to all talents, and that our shared dream could become true through music. That through music, the Estonian soul would become purer, would become stronger, and that our self-reliance would grow through music, because we are standing equal to the others in the big, open world.

Thank you!

Now take the hacksaw and open the door!

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