User:Quasi parlando/sandbox/Eerik Jõks

Eerik Jõks (1970) MA in Chant and Ritual Song (University of Limerick 2001), PhD in Musicology (University of York 2010) is an Estonian musicologist, singer, composer, and former Church politician.

In 1996–2004 Eerik Jõks worked as an Executive Secretary of the Estonian Council of Churches and until the end of 2017 he fulfilled different duties in the same organisation, for example the Chairman if the Theological Commission and the Curator of the Sociology of Religion. Jõks was the initiator of the Protocol of Common Concerns that was signed in 2002 between the Government of Estonian Republic and the Estonian Council of Churches.

Eerik Jõks defended his PhD dissertation ‘Contemporary understanding of Gregorian chant – conceptualisation and practice’ (sup. Dr Nicky Losseff). Eerik Jõks was a Marie Curie fellow from 2011–2014. His postdoctoral project in the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre was ‘Relationship Between Notation and Performance in Medieval Sacred Latin Monody’ (sup. Professor Jaan Ross). Jõks founded the ‘School of Sacred Chant’ at the Tallinna Toompea Kaarli Congregation in 2012 and is conducting its work until today. In 2016–2017 he was a Councillor to the Archbishop of Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Eerik Jõks is currently a researcher and tutor at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (music history, hymnology). From September 2018 Eerik Jõks begins his duties as the Chief Coordinator of the Department of Musicology, Musical Education, Instrumental and Vocal Pedagogy, and Cultural Management.

Among many he has studied with Silvia Landra, Katarina Livljanič, Catherine Sergent, Helen Phelan, Lila Collamore, Nicky Losseff, John Potter, Rosemary Hardy, Anna Maria Friman, Peter Allan, Godehard Joppich, Michiko Hirayama, Jaan Ross.

As a musicologist Eerik Jõks is interested in contemporary reception of medieval sacred Latin monody and its application to vernacular liturgical chant, particularly peculiarities of Estonian prosody in the context of ecclesiastical chant. He is also interested in different performance practices of medieval sacred Latin monody especially Franco-Roman monody. Eerik Jõks is the author of ongoing long-term project ‘Estonian Chant Psalter’ in which he explores monodic sacred chant in Estonian.

In sociology of religion Eerik Jõks is interested in reconciliation of  Finno-Ugric and Indo-Germanic mindsets in the context of Estonian Christianity. Jõks is active in the work of several NGOs, for example Estonian Seamen’s Mission and Liturgical Music Society Scandicus.