Paavo Järvi

Son of renowned Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi followed the same path. Born on December 30, 1962 in Tallinn (Estonia), he trained in Estonia and then in the United States, at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Leonard Bernstein. Winner of a Grammy Award for his interpretation of the Sibelius Cantatas, he established himself in the 1990s as Principal Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1994-1997) and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (1995-1998), before becoming Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (2001-2011, then Music Director Emeritus). In parallel, he has been Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 2004, Principal Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (2006-2014, then Conductor Laureate) and Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris (2010-2016). He was also Principal Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo from 2015 and, since the 2019-2020 season, is Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. Known for the clarity of his style, his expertise in timbre and orchestral color, Paavo Järvi divides his repertoire between the great classics such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bruckner and Mahler, contemporary composers including El Khoury, Thierry Escaich and Arvo Pärt and, to a large extent, the promotion of Estonian composers such as Erkki Sven Tüür. His complete Beethoven symphonies were published in 2013, followed by Sibelius in 2019. Between recordings, the naturalized American conductor continues to pursue an intense international career as guest conductor with the world's leading orchestras. Founder and artistic director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra, established in 2011, he signed the Credo album dedicated to Arvo Pärt with this ensemble in 2025.