Winner of the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2021), Alisson Kruusmaa (born 1992) has emerged as one of the most exciting and commissioned young Estonian composers of today. Currently living in Tallinn, Kruusmaa is focusing on large scale orchestral works and stage music.
Kruusmaa’s music is best described through ethereal, fragile and spacious soundscapes featuring a delicate and sparse orchestration. Her work has been commissioned in Europe, Asia and the United States. Among many others, she has worked with the Dresden Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Orkest de Ereprijs, Phion, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Opera and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. In recent years, Kruusmaa has participated in several festivals, including the Gaudeamus Muziekweek and Andriessen Festival in the Netherlands, the international cello festival Cello Fest in Finland, Mise-En Festival and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Festival in the United States. During the season 2023/2024, she was in residency at the Dutch National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Throughout the years, Kruusmaa’s music has received several recognitions. In 2013, she was awarded Erkki-Sven Tüür Young Composer’s Scholarship. In 2018, her piece Rain (2018) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra won the Best Composition Prize at the 24th Young Composers Meeting in the Netherlands. She has been a featured composer twice at the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition in Los Angeles (2018 and 2021). In February 2022, her string quartet Three Miniatures (2016) was performed by the Eclipse Quartet at the University of California. She is the winner of the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia (2021). In 2023, Kruusmaa received the fellowship given out by maestro Tõnu Kaljuste. In 2025, Kruusmaa was awarded with the National Culture Prize for her ballet Light From the End of the World (2024).
Kruusmaa studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and at the Conservatorio di Musica di Giuseppe Verdi di Milano. At this moment, she is concentrating on her doctoral studies focusing on composing music for ballet.