Arvo Pärt's later works have an uncluttered simplicity about them, a refreshing directness that has made him a modern audience favourite. Behind this music's centred emotional strength, though, lies a fraught personal and political history. Pärt was raised by his mother and stepfather in Rakvere in northern Estonia. Initially his local music school sustained his talent, and the family's battered piano with its damaged middle register induced him to experiment with its top and bottom notes.