Liina Sumera is an Estonian composer born in Tartu. At the age of seven she started studying piano at the Heino Eller Music School in Tartu, later on she also took on flute and pop- jazz singing. Sumera has always been interest- ed in composing, inventing her own melodies instead of practicing given piano pieces. She continued her studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre where she concentrated more on classical composition (with Helena Tulve, Margo Kõlar) and sound engineering (Siim Mäesalu). She has furthered her skills in electronic music composition (Alejandro Olarte), film (Päivi Takala) and video game music (Sandra Mahlamäki) at the Sibelius Academy, Finland.
Sumera has written music for chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra and electronics. She has experimented with many different musical genres from classical to electronic and contemporary composition and she has led a pop/rock band. In addition to concert music, Liina has composed for numerous film and theatre projects. She appreciates all the different musical experiences and says that there’s much to learn from each genre, it’s a good way to broaden your skills in composing and develop different ways of musical thinking. Sumera is also working as a sound engineer at the NUKU Theatre, Tallinn. She loves the creative environment and finds it very inspirational.
She won the Annual Estonian Theatre Award for best original score for theatre plays “Gulliver’s travels”(2018) and “The Shadow” (2018).
Her semi electronic piece “Conatus” for 16 speakers was one of the recommended works in the international rostrum of composers 2018 in the category “composers under 30”.
She won prize at Soundtrack Cologne 9.0 in 2012 for composition and sound design for Felix Könnert’s short animation “Apollo”. In 2014 she started working with NAFTA films on a film named “The Secret Society of Souptown” which became the most viewed family adventure movie in Estonia in 2015. In the same year her film music from was selected for the upcoming 12th Estonian Youth Song And Dance Celebration 2017 orchestra programme.
She has written music for plays in Estonian Youth Theatre: 20 000 Leagues Under the Sea (2013), Children of Captain Grant (2014), The Portrait of Dorian Gray (2015), Look, Madicken, It’s Snowing! (2015), The Birds (based on a Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” and Daphne du Maurier’s book wih the same name) (2017)
Estonian National Opera: Little Prince Hamlet (2014)
Films: Melchior the Apothecary (2022), Melchior the Apothecary: The Ghost, (2022), Melchior the Apothecary: The Executioner’s Daughter, The Secret Society of Souptown (2015), etc.