Rahel Talts is a young Estonian jazz pianist and composer, who in recent years has been musically very active in Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia as well as many other countries around Europe. Talts was born and raised in a little seaside resort town in Estonia called Pärnu. She was born into a jazz musicians’ family and started playing classical piano when she was 6 years old. Rahel graduated music school with classical piano at the age of 14 and started taking percussion lessons alongside that as well. Soon she moved on to jazz piano and composing. In 2018, Talts finished Georg Ots Tallinn Music College with pop-jazz piano and then moved to Denmark to continue studies in jazz piano and composition. In 2023, after 5 years of living and studying in Denmark, she obtained a masters degree in jazz piano and composition from Danish National Academy of Music.
Rahel has taken part in numerous prestige projects all over Europe. In 2021, she was selected to be one of the 15 young jazz musicians in Elbphilharomine Jazz Academy project in Hamburg, which concluded with 2 sold out shows at the legendary Elbphilharomine concert hall. In 2023, Talts was chosen to represent Estonia in the legendary Euroradio Jazz Orchestra where every big band member was from a different European country. In 2023, Rahel was also one of the finalists in the Helsinki Big Band Composing Contest.
Rahel likes to write music for different combos, especially larger ensembles. She takes part in multiple bands and projects in Europe - as a leader as well as a group member - mostly in Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania. Talts has her own international 14-member band called Rahel Talts Ensemble with whom they released their first album in February 2022 called “Power of Thought” which has got a lot of positive feedback, and another one just recently called “New and Familiar” (January 2025) which was another well-reviewed album. Another combo that she leads is her quartet with whom they have toured over Europe and Asia and released a very well received album “Greener Grass” in May 2023. Other than self-led projects, Talts plays in multiple bands, like Allianss (EE), Donatas Petreikis Quintet (DK-LT-EE), J.R. inFusion (FI-DK-EE), Asbjørn Skytte Quintet (DK), Allan Kaljaste Smooth Group (EE), Saulius Petreikis World Orchestra (LT) and many more. In addition, she has studied under and played with jazz legends like Seamus Blake, Lage Lund, Yaron Herman, Melissa Aldana, Theo Croker and Ziv Ravitz. Rahel’s music is melodic, emotional and energetic. In her music, she is very honest and her creations are authentic, genuine and straight from the heart. Other than beautiful melodies and soul touching harmonies, Rahel is also very fascinated by traditional jazz and bebop and has a huge soft spot for it in her heart. Overall, she likes to mix lots of different styles and elements in her music and deliver something that is completely hers.