Gregor Kulla is an Estonian composer, performance artist, writer, and critic. They majored in composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater (with Helena Tulve and Tõnu Kõrvits, cum laude), and in oboe and composition at the Heino Eller Music School (with Anna Šulitšenko and Katrin Aller, with honours). They studied sustainable art creation at the European School of Participation 2021 in Novi Sad, Serbia, and from 2025, they are studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna (mdw). Their work deals with gender studies, feminism, minority and queer cultures, drag culture, Indian philosophies, and Buddhism. Often their music is seen and heard as something seemingly unchanging, which preserves itself only through constant change. They have written for solo instruments, ensembles, orchestras, film, performances and other stage works. Kulla’s piano quintet brook (2023) has been described by a British critic Simon Cummings as follows: “Nothing was still: little taps, trills and tremolos, with occasional plunks that in this rarified context sounded almost like great boulders falling from the sky, in the process begging the question of how fragile this world actually was. […] At no point did Kulla break the spell, from start to end we are immersed in pure magic.” In 2024, Kulla released a vinyl soundtrack for Kris Lemsalu & Johanna Ulfsak’s art mockumentary Old Piano (MIDA Records). They have served as creative producer and assistant artistic director for the international contemporary music festival AFEKT since 2021, and host the radio show (new) music w/ kulla on IDA Radio. Kulla received the honorary title of city Tartu (Tartu Noor Kultuurikandja) in 2020 and, in 2021, became a laureate of Estonian main cultural newspaper Sirp. They are a recipient of the annual prize of the literary magazine Värske Rõhk, the Esimese Sammu literary award, Erkki‑Sven Tüür Foundation scholarship and in 2024 they received one of Estonia’s main literary prizes, the Betti Alver literary prize with their debut book Peenar (2024, Värske Raamat), which is described as a book that pushes boundaries. Estonian choreographer, dancer, and poet Sveta Grigorjeva wrote the following about Peenar: “This is a distinctive, dodecaphonic‑like text corpus, written in a stream‑of‑consciousness style yet lightly curated—retaining its juicy richness while maintaining internal logic and coherence.” In 2025 they received third place with solo piano piece wait, i’m forgetting something in the International Rostrum of Composers in the category of composers under 30 years of age. They have published over 100 articles.
Updated 2025 November
Links: Estonian Composers Union (new) music w/ kulla