Estonian Grammy Award-winning conductor Paavo Järvi is widely recognised as one of today’s most eminent conductors, enjoying close partnerships with the finest orchestras around the world. He serves as Chief Conductor of the Tonhalle Orchester-Zürich, as the long-standing Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 2004, and as both the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra. From the start of the 2022/23 season he is also Honorary Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
In his fourth season as Music Director of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Paavo Järvi embarks on a new Bruckner cycle in the recently refurbished Grosse Tonhalle and completes the Mendelssohn Cycle, which was the main composer focus of the previous year. He closes the 2022/23 season with performances and a recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio in a new semi-staged production, directed by Eva Buchmann. Recent releases include a disc celebrating the 75th birthday of John Adams and a recording of Bruckner Symphony No. 7, both on Alpha Classics.
Each season concludes with a week of performances and conducting master-classes at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, which Paavo Järvi founded in 2011. The success of both the Festival and its resident ensemble – the Estonian Festival Orchestra – has led to a string of high profile invitations including recent performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, BBC Proms and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. In 2019 the Estonian Festival Orchestra made its Japanese debut with soloist Midori and this Autumn they return to Asia for their first tour of South Korea. In Spring 2022 Alpha Classics released their third album, Estonian Premieres, championing works by Estonian composers performed and recorded at the Pärnu Music Festival.
In addition to his permanent positions, Järvi is much in demand as a guest conductor, regularly appearing with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Concertgebouworkest, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He also continues to enjoy close relationships with many of the orchestras of which he was previously Music Director, including Orchestre de Paris, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra.
In 2019 Paavo Järvi was named Conductor of the Year by Germany’s Opus Klassik and received the 2019 Rheingau Music Prize for his artistic achievements with The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in the German orchestral and cultural landscape. Other prizes and honours include a Grammy Award for his recording of Sibelius’ Cantatas with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Artist of the Year by both Gramophone (UK) and Diapason (France) in 2015 and Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture for his contribution to music in France. In 2015 he was presented with the Sibelius Medal in recognition of his work in bringing the Finnish composer’s music to a wider public and in 2012 was awarded the Hindemith Prize for Art and Humanity. As a dedicated supporter of Estonian culture, Paavo Järvi was awarded the Order of the White Star by the President of Estonia in 2013.