Composer and teacher. He was the most powerful representative of the Kapp family which had a strong influence on the musical life in Suure-Jaani. He got his primary education in music at home with his father Joosep Kapp. He studied organ with L. Homilius at St Petersburg Conservatory and completed his studies in 1898. In 1900 he graduated from the conservatory as composer being a student of N. Rimski-Korsakov. Kapp was one of the very first Estonian professional composers.

He worked in St Petersburg for some time, from 1904 to 1920 he was the director of the music school in Astrakhan. In 1920 he moved back to Estonia with his children and became a composition teacher at Tallinn Conservatory founded a year before. In 1925 he became a professor.

Kapp founded a composition school where composers like Evald Aav, Riho Päts, Enn Võrk, Edgar Arro (known foremost for their choir music) and his son Eugen Kapp belonged to.

For a short time Artur Kapp worked in Estonia Theatre as conductor. He was held in great esteem as organist.

Kapp (as well as his contemporary Rudolf Tobias) was the first Estonian composer who started to use several Western musical genres: an overture Don Carlos (1899), a cantata Paradiis ja Peri [Paradise and Peri] (1900), large-scale works for organ.

First of all Kapp was an author of monumental masterpieces like Hiiob [Job], an oratorio (1929) which has had a great success in recent years. There is a lot of works in Kapp’s output worthy to be rediscovered, large-scale works included.

Powerful and serious nature of Kapp’s music is balanced by sudden outbursts of romantic emotions. During 50 years, his active period of creation, his style changed several times and the scale of genres enlarged. Juxtaposition of his two important works – Hiiob, an oratorio, and Metsateel [On A Road Through The Woods], a romance for solo voice – makes the variety and wide scope of his creative work evident.