By Jayarava. This article first appeared in Urthona Issue 23.
Arvo Pärt (pronounced “pairt”) was born in Estonia in 1935. Although at that time Estonia was a nascent independent republic, the Soviet Union took control of it in 1940, and stayed except for a brief period under the Nazis, for the next 54 years.
Pärt’s musical education began at age 7, and by 14 or 15 he was writing his own compositions. While studying composition at the Tallinn Conservatory it was said of him that: “he just seemed to shake his sleeves and notes would fall out”… more…
The rest of this essay can be found on Jayarava’s own website…
Jayarava is a member of the Western Buddhist Order, and has written articles for several Buddhist journals as well as his own blog containing more than 100 short essays on Buddhist texts, philology, ethics, psychology, and practice. He is also the author of ‘Visible Mantra‘, an expert web resource on Buddhist Calligraphy. Jayarava currently lives in Cambridge, UK.
Urthona – Buddhism & art 
This is a wonderful source for understanding Arvo Part.