ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
He graduated from the Higher Music School in Tartu as a pianist and composer,
his teachers were Lemba and Eller. In 1931, he passed his final examinations as a non-
resident student at the Tallinn Conservatoire, on the same specialities, and obtained
both diplomas cum laude.
As a conductor Roots made his debut in summer 1929 with the Tartu Vanemuine
orchestra. In 1933 and 1935 he took advanced training courses in piano in Paris,
studying with Alfred Cortot. In 1937 he took a refresher course in Vienna as a
conductor at the Viennese Academy of Music with the Austrian conductor Felix
Weingartner. In the same year his studies brought him to Salzburg, where one of his
teachers was Nikolay Malko.
In 1939, Roots took the post of the chief conductor of the State Broadcasting
Symphony Orchestra. His last refresher course took him to Salzburg again (1943),
where he participated in the summer courses, organised by the German Music Institute,
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