Composer, Conductor. He was a popular Estonian composer and choral conductor who modelled his style of composition of the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He is primarily remembered for his "Vikerlased" (or "The Vikings") a three-act historical-romantic opera which he composed as his first national Estonian opera in 1928. The opera premiered on September 8, 1928, in Tallinn, Estonia. He was born in Tallin, in the Governorate of Estonian, of the Russian Empire, on March 7, 1900. He studied music composition under the Estonian composer Artur Kapp and he graduated from the composition class of the Tallinn Conservatory in Tallinn, Estonia, in 1926. He wrote his vocal music to words in the Estonian language and conducted several hobby choirs and orchestras including the Military School Choir and Orchestra from 1924 to 1927, Mixed Choir of the Tallinn Department of the All-Estonian Youth Association from 1929 to 1936, the Male Choir of the Estonian Singers of which he was also President from 1934 to 1939, and the Mixed Choir of the Tallinn School Youth Music Organization from 1937 to 1939. He also worked in the Copyright Protection Association from 1932 to 1939, in the publishing fund of the Estonian Cultural Endowment's sound art endowment from 1932 to 1936, and as an editor in the magazine Muusikaleht from 1930 to 1939. He was also the general leader of male choirs at the 1938 general song festival. Besides, "Vikerlased" (or "The Vikings"), his many other compositions and choral songs include, "Singer," "We Are The Children Of The Nordic Countries," "Morning," "Disappeared Into The Night," "Life," and "Humal." His other works include symphonies, concert waltz pieces, orchestra pieces, violin pieces, solo pieces, and choir songs. His works which have been described as nationalism or national romanticism have been performed at many song festivals around the world. He was also a noted painter and sculptor. He was married to the opera singer Ida Loo-Talvari from 1926 until the marriage ended in divorce in 1937. His promising music career was cut short when he sadly passed away on March 21, 1939, at the age of 38, in Tallinn, Estonia. He was laid to rest in the Tallinna Metsakalmistu in Tallinn, Estonia. In 1943, his sister Frieda Rukki founded the Evald Aav scholarship at the Tallinn Conservatory in Tallin, Estonia, and it was first awarded to the Estonian composer and music teacher Heimar Ilves. In 2006, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Estonian Post Estonia Theater, the Estonian Post issued a jubilee stamp designed by Ülle Marks and Jüri Kass. The publication of the two sets of the anniversary stamp featured the Estonian Theater in the middle, a scene from Evald Aav's opera "Vikerlased" (or "The Viking") on the left stamp and Estonian ballerina Helmi Puur in Tchaikovsky's "Swan in the Lake" on the right stamp.