Katherine Emily (Katja) Rumin (b.2002) is a Tallinn-based performer-composer whose current work is centred on the classical and traditional music fields and spreading beyond that, finding the spaces between respecting tradition and creative freedom. Starting her music studies at a young age as a choral singer and pianist, her main instrument in classical music spaces is viola, which she received her Bachelor’s degree in from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (UK), having also studied at Oberlin Conservatory (US) and New England Conservatory Preparatory Division (US); during her first degree she studied composition and historical performance as second studies. Some of her main mentors include Dorothea Vogel, Kirsten Docter, Martha Strongin-Katz (viola); Jihyun Kim, Marcelo Politano (composition). She additionally has participated in many noted masterclasses and courses throughout North America and Europe.  

She now is deepening her knowledge of another of her interests in the traditional music department of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, specialising in traditional singing, while continuing to participate in projects of classical, traditional, and other forms of music in Estonia and beyond. In the frames of her ethnomusic studies she also conducts ethnomusicological research, and has presented at the ”Young Voices” folkloristics conference at the University of Tartu (EE). 

Some of her recent projects include performing as part of Estonian Baroque Orchestra, EMTA symphony, Skandinieki folklore ensemble, and Ensemble Alekton; several albums with various projects will be released in 2026. As a composer her work was recently performed at EMTA’s COMMUTE and Müriaad festivals and by members of Ensemble for New Music Tallinn as well as in Pitt Rivers Museum (UK) as part of Cities in Memory’s A Century of Sounds project, and she is working on the score for an upcoming film by animator Lizete Upīte. Some noted artists she has collaborated with/performed under the direction of include academic music artists Henning Kraggerud, Andrew Lawrence-King, Fenella Humphreys, and Pieter Wispelwey, improvisation specialists Maggie Nicols and Charlotte Hug, and folkmetal group Skyforger. 

Additionally to viola, ethno/choral singing, and composing, Katja also plays violin, baroque viola/violin, 12-string ethnographic kokle (Latvian psaltery variant), Estonian bagpipe, recorders/stabule (folk flute) and talharpa (archaic string instrument native to Sweden and Estonia), occasionally also returning to her roots in keyboard instruments. She also has a background in acting/theatre. 

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composer’s artist statement:

As a composer, she sees her writing process as creating sonic spaces - through harmony and texture - that the listener can come into and experience as they wish for a bit of time. She draws inspiration from, among many other things, collage art, ethnographic archive recordings and traditional music mostly from her roots and neighbouring traditions, the natural sounds around us/field recordings, DIY/underground punk and other chaotic indie music, sometimes controversial modern art that makes one overthink, and folkmetal, among other things. She views scores as modified forms of theatrical scripts, drawing on her background in acting and theatre.

Committed to authenticity, accuracy, and cultural respect for folkloric/ethnographic sources, when drawing from these, she heavily leans on her ethnomusician/researcher background, attempting to make her interpretations and uses of traditional music within her pieces as faithful and informed as possible. Her practice often begins in improvisation of little motifs (or field recordings) which she then cuts up and pastes on the canvas that then turns into the piece. She overall seeks a balance in the soundworld she creates between knowledge of tradition and sometimes chaotic creativity. 

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further statement:

As an artist and researcher, Katja often finds herself in liminal spaces between genres, cultures, and traditions. This stems from her mixed identity as a person and artist: born and raised in northeast North America (both US and Canada) in a mixed East Slavic diaspora/exile family; always feeling drawn to her own, neighbouring, and other musical traditions, but originally (especially not having opportunities as a young person to pursue her own traditions further) principally trained in Western academic music. Her research in an ethnomusicological sense has as yet focused on comparing different singing traditions throughout Northeast Europe.

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In her (often nonexistent) spare time, Katja is an enthusiast of words and language, nature, wild swimming, traditional/social dances of various styles, handwork, sketching, photography, and thrifting.

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**LV: Katrīna Emīlija Rumina, RU: Екатерина Рюмина (Jekaterina Rjumina - I sometimes have used this spelling as an artist name also), BY: Кацярына Рюміна, UA: Катерина Рюміна. My family’s name was anglicised when they emigrated…

View document of artistic CV here: