Conductor and MP Tarmo Leinatamm Dead at 57
Tarmo Leinatamm, a Reform Party member of Parliament, a conductor and a comedian, died Monday at the age of 57.
Leinatamm had kept away from the public eye in recent years, battling cancer.
Leinatamm spent 10 years as the choir master at the Vanemuine theater in Tartu, then was a conductor for the Estonian National Opera before leading the Tallinn Philharmonic Society.
He was also a member of the comedy trio Kreisiraadio, and performed in the finals of Eurovision in 2008 along with the other two "crazy radio" members, Peeter Oja and Hannes Võrno. Apparently performed in a non-existent Balkan or Slavic language and entitled "Leto Svet," the song was widely seen as a send-up of the song contest's ever more self-important establishment.
He was a member of the Reform Party since 1995, and an MP between 2003 and 2007, and again starting in 2011.