Paavo Järvi

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.

Following a tour to the BBC Proms, Beethovenfest Bonn, Enescu and Prague Dvořák festivals, Järvi opens his fifth season with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and a continuation of his Bruckner cycle, including three performances of Symphony No.9 at the Grosse Tonhalle and album release of Symphony No.8 on Alpha Classics. Additional highlights in 2023/24 include the beginning of a Mahler cycle and a major tour to South Korea and Japan.
 
In 2024, Paavo Järvi celebrates his 20th anniversary as Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the ensemble with which he has performed and recorded benchmark performances of the complete orchestral works by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms. With their most recent project dedicated to Haydn’s London Symphonies they play in residency at the Wiener Konzerthaus and on tour in Cologne, Hamburg and Dublin in December, before embarking on a new in-depth focus of Schubert symphonies in 2024.
 
Each season concludes with a week of performances and conducting masterclasses 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 performances at the Philharmonie Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, BBC Proms and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. In January 2024, Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra reunite for their third European tour, with concerts in Tallinn, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Zürich, Vienna and Munich. Alpha Classics recently released their fourth album, KRATT, featuring works by Tubin, Lutosławski and Bacewicz. 
 
In addition to his permanent positions, Järvi is much in demand as a guest conductor, regularly appearing with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia and the New York Philharmonic. This season, Järvi conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker and Hong Kong 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, Tokyo. 
 
Paavo Järvi was named Conductor of the Year by Germany’s Opus Klassik in 2019 and, in the same year, received the 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.