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Most of the rapidly growing number of live music conferences can usually attract a flagship speaker or two, but Tallinn Music Week is alone in getting an annual address from the country’s political leader.

If Estonian President Toomas Ilves didn’t have a country to run, he could likely make quite a name for himself touring the European live music conference circuit.

His opening keynote speeches have convinced regular TMW-goers that, above all, Ilves is a music lover – not just a politician who’s trying to get the youth vote or take advantage of a photo opportunity.

Over the years, these regular TMW-goers have learned that Ilves is a big fan of Arcade Fire, he enjoys illustrating a point by quoting chunks of Neil Young lyrics, and that his passion for music bloomed in the days when he was teaching English in New York and hanging out at CBGBs.

He became the Estonian ambassador to the U.S. in 1993, while holding similar posts in Canada and Mexico.
The only time Swedish-born Ilves, who was elected Estonian president in 2006 and re-elected for a further five years in 2011, has used his annual TMW address for anything of even a vaguely political nature was last year’s criticism of how the Russian authorities were handling the Pussy Riot fiasco.

He showed some footage of the performance in the Moscow cathedral that got the women arrested as he spoke of rock music as a method of protest and the value of the freedom to make such protests.

At this year’s Eurosonic-Noorderslag, when Ewert & The Two Dragons picked up a European Broadcasting Union award for raising its profile outside of its own territory, Ilves appeared via a satellite link to congratulate the act on what it had done for Estonian culture.

A country with a population of only 1.3 million had punched above its weight.

Ewert and his dragons played 110 shows in 2012, including several European festivals, and signed deals with Warner Bros Records and BMG Rights Management.

This year the three-day gathering at Tallinn’s Nordic Forum Hotel April 4-6 will also have a “celebrity interview” with Seymour Stein, a serial music biz entrepreneur and co-founder of Sire Records.

Last year’s celebrity was former Dire Straits manager Ed Bicknell. Like the Sunday morning interviews at ILMC, when Bicknell is the other side of the table and asking the questions, these sessions are a chance to hear some highly entertaining rock ’n’ roll stories – without caring if any of them are true.

TMW will also look at the potential for a Nordic-Baltic Hub, a region that could prosper through mutual strength and create a network stretching through Scandinavia and the Baltics to the Russian border.

The fact the panel for what TMW is calling “Boosting Cooperation In The Nordic-Baltic Region” includes Liisa Ketomäki (Turku Music Festival), Leelo Lehtla (Pille Lill Music Fund) and Danas Skramtai (National Philharmonic Society of Lithuania) suggests it may focus on what progress classical music is making toward a Nordic-Baltic Hub.

Live Nation set up shop in Russia at the end of last year, if only to co-promote with such locals as SAV, PMI, Nord Concert Alliance and Euro Entertainment, and there’ll certainly be a Nordic-Baltic Hub whenever it goes through with buying Peeter Rebane’s Baltic Development Group.

At that point Live Nation will have a piece on every square. And the Nordic-Baltic Hub will be there for future panels to complain about.

The showcases at this year’s TMW will feature more than 233 acts from 20 countries, almost 20 percent more than played last year.