Katherine Emily (Katja) Rumin (b.2002) is a Tallinn-based performer-composer whose current work is rooted in the Western classical and traditional music fields and spreading beyond that, in search of the spaces between tradition and creativity. 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). 

Outside EMTA ensembles some of her recent projects include performing as part of Estonian Baroque Orchestra, “Skandinieki” folklore ensemble, and Ensemble Alekton; several albums with various projects will be released in 2026. She also has sung with award-winning chamber choir “Avis Animi”.

Her compositions are centred on creating varied and immersive sonic spaces, often strongly informed and inspired by her knowledge/practice of ethnomusic and folklore of her origins and their neighbours - not as a form of exotification or ornamentation, but presented always with the view of bringing tradition into new spaces. This is combined with the knowledge and influence of other ideas/artforms - especially theatre, experimental poetry and multisensory artforms - as well as the strangeness of modern life. Her work was recently performed at EMTA’s COMMUTE and Müriaad festivals and by members of Ensemble for New Music Tallinn; 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, Limmie Pulliam, 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, which continues to inform her artistic practice. 

She is grateful to the Willem Willeke Scholarship of South Mountain Foundation in support of her classical bachelor’s studies. Her classical instrument, made in 1995 by Gabrielle Kundert, was the final gift to her by her late great-aunt Nadežda Konstantinovna Rumine.

In her (often nonexistent) spare time, Katja is an enthusiast of words and language (having 4 main communication languages), nature, wild swimming, traditional/social dances of various styles, handwork, sketching, photography, and thrifting.

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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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**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. As my family’s name was anglicised when they emigrated to English-speaking countries, I have several forms of my full name.

View document of artistic CV here: