Kristel Aer graduated from Estonian Academy of Music (1992) as a choir conductor in the class of Prof. Kuno Areng. In the Academy she also started her organ studies with Prof. Hugo Lepnurm and Ines Maidre.
In 1992 Kristel Aer started organ studies at the church music department of Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, where she received organist-diploma and Magister Artium-degree in church music in 1999. In 1996-1998 Kristel Aer continued her organ studies at the Royal Conservatorium in Copenhagen with Prof. Hans Fagius. She has also participated in the masterclasses of L.F. Tagliavini, A. Marcon, L. Lohmann, J. van Oortmerssen, J. Laukvik and D. Sanger.
1997-2000 Kristel Aer was employed as an organ-teacher in Church Music School of Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK). Nowadays she is working in church music department of Theological Institute of EELK and is organ pedagog at the Tallinn G. Ots Music School.
Kristel Aer has taken part in organ-festivals in Estonia and abroad, with solo-concerts and together with various soloists and choirs she performed in several Estonian churches as well as in Poland, Russia, Germany and Scandinavian countries. She is organizer of “Organ-Summer in Juuru”, taking place in the central-part of Estonia and is playing in four CD-s.
K. Aer has participated actively in many organ foundations and the Estonian Organ Friends Association organizing projects relating to the restoration and renovation of organs as well as competitions for the design and building of new organs.