Neeme Järvi

During his long and highly successful career, Neeme Järvi has conducted many of the world’s most prominent orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia, Czech Philharmonic, Zürich Tonhalle and BBC Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the major orchestras of Scandinavia and the symphony orchestras of Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. In the US he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony and Philhadelphia Orchestras. His operatic engagements have included the Metropolitan Opera, the Téatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Opéra de Paris (Bastille) and San Francisco Opera.

Guest conducting highlights in the 2008/09 season included a continued relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as regular appearances at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Neeme Järvi also performed with the Gothenburg and Montreal Symphony Orchestras, and at the Prague Spring Festival. He also conducted Rudolf Tobias’ Jona Sendung (Jonah’s Mission) with the Estonian Symphony and Chorus.

In the 2009/10 season, guest conducting highlights include a continued relationship with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart Des SWR, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society etc.

During the summer of 2011, Neeme Järvi replaces Charles Dutoit, director of the Verbier Festival Orchestra at the Verbier Festival, where he conducts the orchestra accompanying the young Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in Rachmaninov's Third Concerto. A few days later he is in St. Petersburg, where he was chosen to lead the closing concert of the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theatre.

2010/11 sees him open the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s season once again, and continue his regular returns to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducts the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in a special concert for The Pope at the Vatican, and tours the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester to Turin, Paris and Baden-Baden.

Maestro Järvi has amassed a distinguished recording repertoire that includes more than 400 discs on the Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, BIS, Orfeo, EMI and BMG labels, as well as on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s independent label. In addition to a number of operas, he has recorded complete symphony cycles of Wilhelm Stenhammar and Hugo Alfvén; Niels Gade and Carl Nielsen, Sibelius, Brahms and Franz Schmidt, Martinů and Dvořák, Estonian composers Arvo Pärt and Eduard Tubin; Glazunov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich and many others. Neeme Järvi and Göteborg Symfoniker (GSO) were awarded a Swedish Grammy for their recording of Aurora, Music from the Far North, and this reflects the high standard to which the orchestra were raised under his direction.

Many international accolades and awards have been bestowed upon Neeme Järvi. In Estonia these include an honorary doctorate from the Music Academy of Estonia in Tallinn, and the Order of the National Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of Estonia, Mr. Lennart Meri. The mayor of Tallinn presented Maestro Järvi with the city’s first-ever ceremonial sash and coat of arms insignia, and he has been named one of the “Estonians of the Century”. He is also the honorary member of Estonian Theatre and Music Museum’s council board. Neeme Järvi holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Detroit’s Wayne State University, as well as honorary degrees from the University of Aberdeen, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and the University of Michigan; and Commander of the North Star Order from King Karl Gustav XVI of Sweden.