Born in 1972 in Tartu, Estonia, she studied composition with Alo Pöldmäe at Tallinn Music High School and the Estonian Music Academy from 1989 to 1992; at that time, she was Erkki-Sven Tüür’s only student. She continued her compositional studies at the Conservatoire de Paris under Jacques Charpentier, graduating in 1994 with the Premier Prix. From 1993 to 1996, she continued at the same institution in the area of Gregorian chant and traditional music. She has taken part in summer courses led by György Ligeti and Marco Stroppa (1990) and IRCAM’s electronic music courses in Paris (2001). Since 2000, she has been on the Faculty of Composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Professor since 2011, Vice-Rector from 2012 to 2016), and since 2015, she has been the Artistic Director of the Estonian Music Days. In the 2001/02 season, Tulve was the Composer-in-Residence for the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, whose commissioned chamber opera It Is Getting So Dark premiered in 2004 at Tallinn City Theatre. She was composer-in-residence at the Pärnu Järvi International Summer Festival (2012), Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (2012/13), Chamber Music Festival in Båstad (2017), and Rencontres Utopik w Nantes (2018). She has held masterclasses at the Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam, 2010), Young Composers’ Meeting (Apeldoorn, 2010) and Young Composers’ International Masterclasses in St Petersburg (2012). 

Tulve has been commissioned to write music by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Vox Clamantis, U: Ensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Aleph, Deutschlandradio, Seattle Chamber Players, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Insomnio, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Afekt Festival, Ensemble Adapter, Theatre of Voices, Bang on a Can, Ensemble TM+ and many others. Her compositions have been performed in Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia, and Australia. 

In 2004, Helena Tulve’s orchestral piece Sula was awarded the 1st Prize at the International Rostrum of Composers. Her chamber work In a nakhtfun yeridah received the Composer’s Prize at the 2005 Estonian Music Days, and Südamaa for piano and symphony orchestra received the EMP 2014 Composition Prize. In 2006, Reyah hadas ’ala was recognised with the Prince Pierre of Monaco Musical Composition Prize, and the orchestral work Sula received the ISCM-CASH Young Composers Award. In 2012, she was presented with the Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France, and in 2015, she was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco. In 2017, Tulve was awarded the Lepo Sumera Award for Composition. In 2019, she was awarded the LHV New Music Award Au-tasu with her work In Uncharted Waters. 

Her works have been published by Edition Peters and the Estonian Musical Fund. Her music has been recorded for several collections, amongst them the composer’s own three albums, Sula (Eesti Raadio, 2005), Lijnen (ECM, 2008), and Árboles lloran por lluvia (ECM, 2014). 

At the core of Helena Tulve’s music is unceasing change and the associated processes in time, space, and energy transformation. Her music is rooted in simple elementary impulses, being affected by natural patterns, organicity, and universal life energy, which embraces complexity and contradictions, different conditions, forms, and movements. No sound is excluded from Tulve’s music, and each may find its own time and place therein. The centrality of sound in Tulve’s music does not only refer to the timbre; it simultaneously includes melody, intonation, tension, harmony, micro-intervals, and energetic transformations, creating a sound space where dynamic processes take place on a temporal axis. 

German musicologist Wolfgang Sandner wrote about Tulve’s work: “One of the fine qualities of her music is that much of it works as if it were not composed, as if it just happened, as if the instrument were playing itself rather than being played, as if the music were emanating from a set of wind chimes. In her music, forms do not jostle their way into the foreground. Their structures are like rocks or trees: everything is self-evident; much is gnarled, much is beautiful; some things are mysterious, others plain as day. It begins, it develops, and at the end it possesses consistency – in memory. Hers is a music that could be installed in a landscape. Not only would it protrude, it would be subsumed.” 

Selected works: Sula for symphony orchestra (1999), Ithaka for soprano, violin and piano (2000), Traces for ensemble (2001), Cendres for large ensemble (2001), Vie secrète for mixed choir (2002), Delta, electronic music (2003), effleurements, éclatements for guitar and percussion (2003), abysses for large ensemble (2003), It Is Getting So Dark, chamber opera (2004), ...il neige for harpsichord and Estonian zither (2004), nec ros, nec pluviam for string quartet (2004), lumineux/opaque for clarinet, cello, piano and three glasses of wine (2002–4), Linge d’horizon for large ensemble (2000–5), stream for flute / piccolo, bass flute, clarinet / bass clarinet, violin and cello (2006), Silmajad for zither, harp and harpsichord (2006–9), les nuages parfois for recorder quartet (2009), Extinction des choses vues for symphony orchestra (2007), Three Songs for piano (2008), L’Équinoxe de l’âme for soprano, Baroque harp and string quartet (2008), I heard you singing for three percussionists (2010), Mondnacht for voice and zither (2010), North Wind, South Wind for voice, flute, hannel and cello (2010), Where the Two Seas Meet? For large ensemble (2010), Anastatica for symphony orchestra (2011), Hingamis veele for string orchestra (2011), Salt for soprano and percussion (2011), Rimlands for clarinet, cello and piano (2012), L’ombre derrière toi for three violas da gamba and strings or string orchestra (2011), Pulse, Ebb and Flow for bass flute and piano (2012), Und von liehte vinster for bassoon and string quartet (2012), As a River Towards the Sea for saxophone and piano (2012), Stella matutina for voice and prepared piano (2012), Südamaa for piano and symphony orchestra (2012–14), Being Mountain I Remain Silent for symphony orchestra (2013), Höbelvage for flute and string orchestra (2013; version for violin and string orchestra, 2008), Lost for mixed choir (2014), stream 2 for ensemble (2006–15), At the Night of Decline for ensemble (2006–15), Taeva ja maa vahel for chamber orchestra (2015), music for the Iwan Wyrypajew’s play Taniec “Delhi” (2015), Le reflet du reflet (Hommage à Pierre Boulez) for ensemble (2015), higher than the soul can hope and mind can hide for two violins (2015), Every Spark is Numbered I: Two Seas for septet (2015), Every Spark is Numbered II for harp, harpsichord and zither (2015), Every Spark is Numbered III: Rio Abajo Rio for harpsichord, violin, viola and cello (2016), The Night Sea Journey for saxophone, percussion and piano (2017), Maa suda for piano and ensemble (2017), You and I for choir (2017), Pimesi for double bass (2018), Alleluia Veni Sancte Spiritus for choir (2018), Tundmatuis vetes for cello and string orchestra (2018), There are Tears at the Heart of Things for alto flute, bass clarinet, harp and percussion (2018), To Night Travellers, the Light for cello and piano (2019), I Am a River for mixed choir (2019), Geh bis an deiner Sehnsucht Rand for Płock fiddle, Biłgoraj suka and vocal octet, to words by Rainer Maria Rilke (2024).