XXII Rapla Church Music Festival 15 - 25 July 2014Rapla Church Music Festival which would have been banned during the Soviet occupation could start with its events in 1993 with the help of Finnish church musicians. The Festival aims to bring good music even to the smallest country churches in Estonia, focusing on high quality works of primarily sacred, but also of secular repertoire. The programs have included grand oratorios, performances of Estonian top-soloists, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and a lot more. In 1997 the concert cycle spread out of the Rapla Church of Mary Magdalene and is now held in several neighboring counties as well. Hand in hand with Estonian musicians the Festival has so far hosted guest artists from Great Britain, Russia, Scandinavia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Japan and other countries. The festival major supporters are the Local Governments’ Development Fund of the Rapla County, the Estonian Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia. The founder and long time organizer of the festival was Raimo Kivistik. Since 2010 the artistic director is the renowned opera singer Pille Lill and the management was taken over by PLMF (www.plmf.ee).