Paavo Järvi

Paavo Järvi studied conducting in his native Estonia, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and with Leonard Bernstein in Los Angeles. He is chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich since the 2019–20 season. Järvi has held similar positions with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Orchestre de Paris, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1994–97).

Since 2004, Järvi has served as artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. He is also artistic adviser to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. 

From the beginning of his career, Järvi has been a leading advocate of music from his native country, such as that of Erkki-Sven Tüür, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt. He has received numerous awards and distinctions for his services to music, including the Order of the White Star (2013) and the Order of Merit (2021) from the Republic of Estonia. Both Diapason and Gramophone named Järvi Artist of the Year and in September 2019 Opus Klassik named him Conductor of the Year. He won Grammy Awards for his recordings of works by Sibelius, Grieg and Tchaikovsky.

Järvi gives frequent performances as a guest conductor with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been a regular guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since his debut in 2004. In November 2019 he conducted the orchestra in works by Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich in Amsterdam and on tour in Taiwan and Japan. In 2021 he returned for a live-streamed programme featuring works by Mozart and Schumann.