Veljo Tormis (7 August 1930 – 21 January 2017) was an Estonian composer, regarded as one of the greatest choral composers and one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Estonia. He is internationally famous for his extensive body of choral music, which exceeds 500 individual choral songs, most of it a cappella. The great majority of these pieces are based on traditional ancient Estonian folksongs (regilaulud), either textually, melodically, or merely stylistically.