Neeme Järvi first studied music with his brother Vallo before entering the Tallinn School of Music, where he studied percussion and choral conducting. Having made his public conducting debut in Tallinn in 1954, he continued his studies between 1955 and 1960 at the Leningrad Conservatory, where his teachers in symphonic and operatic conducting included Nicolai Rabinovich and Yevgeny Mravinsky. Both made a great impression upon him, as he recalled: ‘Rabinovich was all beautiful hands and upbeats and everything that conductors need.’ Jarvi has also noted that these mentors were in turn highly influenced by the Jewish conductors who were seeking refuge from Nazi Germany during the 1930s: ‘Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer conducted in Leningrad every year, and these young Rabinovichs and Mravinskys looked (at them) every day, as I looked at Mravinsky and Rabinovich thirty years later.’

Following graduation from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1960, Järvi played as a percussionist in the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, being subsequently appointed chief conductor of this orchestra in 1963, as well as chief conductor and artistic director of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (renamed the Estonian National Opera Theatre after independence was restored to Estonia). In the same year he co-founded the Estonian Chamber Orchestra in Tallinn and became its artistic director. During the 1960s Järvi began to gain an international reputation through his regular appearances with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and the major Moscow orchestras, as well as with guest appearances elsewhere in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Having made his operatic conducting debut with Bizet’s Carmen at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad, he later conducted the Soviet Union’s first-ever performances of Der RosenkavalierPorgy and Bess and Il Turco in Italia.

In 1971 Järvi took first prize at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Conducting Competition in Rome. This opened the door to invitations to conduct in Western Europe (Great Britain, Sweden, Holland, Germany) and further afield (Argentina, Canada and Japan), and in 1973 and 1977 he made his first appearances in the USA, on tour with the Leningrad Philharmonic and the Leningrad Symphony Orchestras. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York came in 1979, when he conducted Eugene Onegin to considerable critical acclaim. Järvi had relinquished his position at the head of the Estonian State Opera in 1976, when he was appointed the chief conductor of the newly-formed Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, but following a performance he gave in Estonia of Arvo Pärt’s Credo, which contained words from the Bible, members of the Estonian State Symphony Orchestra were sacked from their posts by the authorities. As a result, in 1980 Järvi decided to emigrate with his family to America.

Two major agencies, International Concert Management and Columbia Artists, offered to represent him and he decided to work with the latter. Soon he was conducting the major American orchestras, including the Cincinnati Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras, developing in particular a close association with the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. In addition appointments with European orchestras quickly followed. Järvi worked alongside Simon Rattle as principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra between 1981 and 1984, and following an appearance at the Royal Opera House in Sweden conducting Richard Strauss’s Salome he became chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in 1982, holding this appointment until 2004 when he became the orchestra’s conductor emeritus. Similarly, he was chief conductor of the Scottish National Orchestra between 1984 and 1988, then becoming that orchestra’s conductor emeritus in 1990. Having become an American citizen in 1987, Järvi was appointed chief conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1990: as with the Gothenburg Orchestra, he developed a long relationship with this ensemble, stepping down only in 2005, when he became conductor emeritus of this orchestra too, as well as the chief conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and of The Hague Residentie Orchestra. Throughout the period of his Detroit appointment, Järvi also accepted numerous guest engagements, appearing in Europe and the USA regularly as both a symphonic and operatic conductor, as well as being the principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

Järvi has a superlative conducting technique through which he strives for close communication with orchestral players: ‘…you have to talk with your hands with the musicians. You have to explain with every gesture, like you’re breathing. If you’re not breathing you’re not alive. This kind of a relationship – always showing what you want – works so beautifully, and American orchestras are the best to work with as a conductor, because they are so professional. Just show them and it’s done. If you are not showing, nothing comes. You are just beating, no music.’ In addition he is a conductor who is frequently highly spontaneous in performance, giving his interpretations notable freshness and immediacy. This aspect of conducting is often in the forefront of his teaching. At the annual conducting course in which he participates at Pärnu, a resort town on Estonia’s southern coast, Järvi has been known to both censure and encourage students with comments such as: ‘Boring music-making! Do something with it! If you are in the middle of a piece and want to do something, do it.’ Those who have played with Järvi praise highly his collaborative style of music-making. A member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, violinist Beatriz Budinszky, has commented in interview, ‘Neeme is proof that a conductor can be a gentleman… he has that charisma, that contagious enthusiasm.’

Järvi is also unusual in that he is constantly searching out and performing neglected works by both popular and lesser-known composers. This philosophy developed early in his career: when he was active in Estonia he presented many new works by fellow countrymen Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt, long before they had achieved the international distinction which they now enjoy. These three characteristics – a highly communicative conducting technique, consistent spontaneity and the constant search for new repertoire – have made Järvi an ideal recording conductor. During the course of his career he has recorded well over three hundred and fifty discs for the Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, BIS, Orfeo, EMI and BMG labels, as well as for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s own label. He has recorded complete symphonic cycles of Swedish composers Wilhelm Stenhammar and Hugo Alfvén; Danish composers Niels Gade and Carl Nielsen; Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (his complete orchestral music); Johannes Brahms and Franz Schmidt; Czech composers Bohuslav Martinů and Antonín Dvořák; Estonian composers Arvo Pärt and Eduard Tubin; Russian composers Glazunov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich; and many others. With the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded thirty-six discs for the Chandos label, including an important American series with works by Samuel Barber, Amy Beach, Charles Ives, George Chadwick, Duke Ellington and William Grant Still. In addition, notably with the Gothenburg Orchestra, Järvi has revived several important works by Russian composers which have vanished undeservedly from the concert repertoire, such as Maximilian Steinberg’s Symphony No. 1 and Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 6.

The considerable influence exerted by recordings is acknowledged by Järvi, who has commented, ‘I think that the orchestras that I lead should become known in the world. It’s not possible to travel around the world with them that much, and thus I can introduce them via the records. Gothenburg is a small Swedish town and the Gothenburg orchestra would have remained unknown had we not recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s almost one hundred records have given it considerable recognition.’ Neeme and Liilia Järvi’s three children are all musicians: his two sons Paavo and Kristjan are both distinguished conductors, while his daughter Maarika is a flautist of note.

Le chef d’orchestre estonien primé aux Grammy Awards, Paavo Järvi, est largement reconnu comme le « musicien des musiciens », et collabore étroitement avec les meilleurs orchestres du monde. Il occupe les postes de chef principal de l’Orchestre Tonhalle de Zurich et de l’Orchestre symphonique NHK de Tokyo, ainsi que directeur artistique de la Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie de Brême et de l’Estonian Festival Orchestra, dont il est également le fondateur. Il est également chef émérite du Frankfurt Radio Symphony, directeur musical émérite du Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra et conseiller artistique de l’Orchestre national d’Estonie.

En dehors de ses postes permanents, Järvi est très sollicité en tant que chef invité, se produisant régulièrement avec le Berliner Philharmoniker, le Philharmonia Orchestra de Londres, le Münchner Philharmoniker, la Staatskapelle de Dresde et l’Orchestre de Paris, dont il fut le directeur musical de 2010 à 2016.

Chaque saison se termine par une semaine de concerts et de masterclasses de direction au Pärnu Music Festival en Estonie, que Paavo Järvi a fondé en 2011 avec son père, Neeme Järvi. Le succès du festival et de son ensemble résident – l’Estonian Festival Orchestra – a valu de nombreuses invitations de prestige, notamment des performances récentes aux BBC Proms, à l’Elbphilharmonie de Hambourg et une tournée au Japon.

Avec une vaste discographie, les récentes publications de Paavo Järvi incluent un album de musique orchestrale méconnue de Messiaen avec l’Orchestre Tonhalle de Zurich ; le troisième et dernier volume du cycle des Symphonies de Brahms avec la Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie de Brême ; et l’enregistrement en première mondiale de la 9e Symphonie d’Erkki-Sven Tüür, Mythos, avec l’Estonian Festival Orchestra.

En 2019, Paavo Järvi a été nommé Chef d’orchestre de l’année par l’Opus Klassik en Allemagne et a reçu le prix de musique du Rheingau pour ses réalisations artistiques avec la Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie de Brême dans le paysage orchestral et culturel allemand. Parmi ses autres récompenses, citons un Grammy Award pour son enregistrement des Cantates de Sibelius avec l’Orchestre national d’Estonie, Artiste de l’année pour Gramophone (Royaume-Uni) et Diapason (France) en 2015, ainsi que le titre de Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres du ministère français de la Culture pour sa contribution musicale en France. Défenseur acharné de la culture estonienne, il a reçu l’Ordre de l’Étoile Blanche par le président de l’Estonie en 2013, et en 2015, il s’est vu décerner la Médaille Sibelius en reconnaissance de son travail pour faire connaître la musique du compositeur finlandais.

Né à Tallinn, en Estonie, Paavo Järvi a étudié les percussions et la direction d’orchestre à l’École de musique de Tallinn. En 1980, il s’est installé aux États-Unis, où il a poursuivi ses études à l’Institut Curtis de Musique et à l’Institut Philharmonique de Los Angeles sous la direction de Leonard Bernstein.

Since founding Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, Masaaki Suzuki has established himself as a leading authority on the works of Bach. He has remained their Music Director ever since, taking them regularly to major venues and festivals in Europe and the USA and building up an outstanding reputation for the expressive refinement and truth of his performances.

In addition to working with renowned period ensembles, such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Baroque, Suzuki is invited to conduct repertoire as diverse as Brahms, Britten, Fauré, Mahler, Mendelssohn and Stravinsky, with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio, Danish National Radio, Gothenburg Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, San Francisco Symphony, Sydney Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestras. This season he visits the NDR Elbphilharmonie, NHK Symphony, Seattle Symphony and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, amongst others.

Suzuki’s impressive discography on the BIS label, featuring all Bach’s major choral works as well as complete works for harpsichord, has brought him many critical plaudits – the Times has written: “it would take an iron bar not to be moved by his crispness, sobriety and spiritual vigour”. 2018 marked the triumphant conclusion of Bach Collegium Japan’s epic recording of the complete sacred and secular cantatas initiated in 1995 and comprising sixty-five volumes. The ensemble has now embarked upon extending their repertoire with recent recordings of works by Mozart (Requiem and Mass in C minor) and Beethoven (Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9).

Last season Bach Collegium Japan were invited to participate, as one of three ensembles, in the cantata cycle at Bachfest Leipzig, where they also gave a critically acclaimed performance of Mendelssohn’s Elias; their busy touring schedule also took them to the USA performing at venues including the Alice Tully Hall, New York and San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall. This season in Europe they embark upon their 30th anniversary tour including concerts in Brussels, Dublin, Hamburg, Köln, London, Madrid and Paris, amongst others.

Suzuki combines his conducting career with his work as an organist and harpsichordist; he is currently in the process of recording Bach’s solo works for these instruments. Born in Kobe, he graduated from the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with a degree in composition and organ performance and went on to study at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam under Ton Koopman and Piet Kee. Founder and Professor Emeritus of the early music department at the Tokyo University of the Arts, he was on the choral conducting faculty at the Yale School of Music and Yale Institute of Sacred Music from 2009 until 2013, where he remains affiliated as the principal guest conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum.

In 2012 Suzuki was awarded with the Leipzig Bach Medal and in 2013 the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize. In April 2001, he was decorated with ‘Das Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik’ from Germany.

La direction fluide et la musicalité pénétrante de James Gaffigan fascinent les orchestres (Philharmonique de Los Angeles, Tonhalle de Zurich, Orchestre royal du Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris…) et les maisons d’opéra (Metropolitan Opera de New York, Bayerische Staatsoper de Munich, Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus de Zurich…) du monde entier. Alors qu’il est Chef assistant du Cleveland Orchestra auprès de Franz Welser-Möst en 2004, il remporte la même année le Premier Prix au concours international Sir Georg Solti. À la direction remarquable d’opus lyriques de Mozart, Rossini, Puccini et Strauss, le chef américain a également contribué à la renommée internationale du Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, dont il a été Chef principal. Il est depuis 2021 Directeur musical du Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra et prendra les mêmes fonctions au Komische Oper Berlin pour quatre saisons à compter de 2023/24.

Over the past decade, Jaap van Zweden has been an international presence on three continents.   Currently, he is Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, a post he began in 2018, and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012.

Van Zweden has appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the globe, among them the Orchestre de Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,   Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jaap van Zweden has made numerous acclaimed recordings, the most recent of which are a 2020 release with the New York Philharmonic  of the World Premiere of David Lang’s prisoner of the state, and the 2019 release of the World Premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth, continuing the Philharmonic’s partnership with Decca Gold. In 2018 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, he completed a four-year project conducting the first-ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which have been recorded and released on Naxos Records as individual recordings as well as a complete set.  His highly praised performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal, the latter of which earned Jaap van Zweden the prestigious Edison Award for Best Opera Recording in 2012, are available on CD/DVD.

Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was appointed at age nineteen as the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.  He began his conducting career nearly twenty years later in 1996. He remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic where he served as Chief Conductor from 2005-2013, served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Flanders Orchestra from 2008-11, and was Music Director from 2008-2018 of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra where he currently holds the title Conductor Laureate.  Van Zweden was named Musical America’s 2012 Conductor of the Year and was the subject of an October 2018 CBS 60 Minutes profile. Recently, he was awarded the prestigious 2020 Concertgebouw Prize, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden’s leadership was named Gramophone’s 2019 Orchestra of the Year.

In 1997, Jaap van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation, the objective being to support families of children with autism. Now, over 20 years later, the Foundation has grown into a multi-faceted organization which, through various initiatives and activities, focuses on the development of children and young adults with autism.  The Foundation provides in-home music therapy to children through a national network of qualified music therapists in the Netherlands; opened the Papageno House in August 2015 (with Her Majesty Queen Maxima in attendance) for young adults with autism to live, work and  participate in the community; created a  research  center at the Papageno House for early diagnosis and treatment of autism and for analyzing  the effects of music therapy on autism; develops funding opportunities to support autism programs; and launched the app, TEAMPapageno, which allows children with autism to communicate with each other through music composition.

Klaus Hellwig se distingue d’abord par les prix qu’il remporte au Concours International Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud à Paris, et au Concours International de Musique Viotti à Vercelli, Italie. Il fut l’élève de Detlef Kraus, Pierre Sancan (Paris), Guido Agosti (Accademia Chigiana Siena) et Wilhelm Kempff. En 2007 avec la violoniste Christiane Edinger et le violoncelliste Lluís Claret, il fonde le Berlin Trio, ville dans laquelle il enseigne depuis 1980, à l’Universtät der Künste Berlin. Klaus Hellwig a enregistré plus de 25 CD pour de grandes maisons de disques. Ses élèves sont fréquemment récompensés lors de grands concours internationaux, dont les premiers prix des Concours Reine Elisabeth, Gina Bachauer et Schumann.

Sir Simon Rattle est né à Liverpool et a étudié à la Royal Academy of Music.

De 1980 à 1998, Sir Simon a été chef principal et conseiller artistique de l’Orchestre symphonique de Birmingham et a été nommé directeur musical en 1990. En 2002, il a occupé le poste de directeur artistique et chef principal du Berliner Philharmoniker, où il est resté jusqu’à la fin de la saison 2017-18. Sir Simon a été nommé directeur musical de l’Orchestre symphonique de Londres en septembre 2017, poste qu’il a occupé jusqu’à la saison 2023-24, date à laquelle il est devenu chef émérite de l’orchestre. En 2023-24, Sir Simon a pris le poste de chef principal de l’Orchestre symphonique de la Bayerischer Rundfunk à Munich. Il est un artiste principal de l’Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment et le fondateur bienfaiteur du Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Sir Simon a réalisé plus de 70 enregistrements pour le label EMI (aujourd’hui Warner Classics) et a reçu de nombreux prix internationaux prestigieux pour ses enregistrements sur divers labels. Les sorties chez EMI comprennent la Symphonie des psaumes de Stravinsky (qui a reçu un Grammy Award pour la meilleure performance chorale), la Symphonie fantastique de Berlioz, L’enfant et les sortilèges de Ravel, la Suite Casse-Noisette de Tchaïkovski, la Symphonie no 2 de Mahler, Le Sacre du printemps de Stravinsky et Les Cloches et Danses symphoniques de Rachmaninov, tous enregistrés avec le Berliner Philharmoniker. Ses enregistrements les plus récents incluent La Damnation de Faust de Berlioz, Woven Space de Helen Grime, Pelléas et Mélisande de Debussy, Remembering de Turnage, et Le Christ au mont des Oliviers de Beethoven, tous sortis sous le propre label discographique de l’Orchestre symphonique de Londres, LSO Live.

Sir Simon fait régulièrement des tournées en Europe, aux États-Unis et en Asie, et entretient des relations étroites et durables avec les orchestres les plus prestigieux du monde. Il dirige régulièrement la Staatskapelle Berlin, le Berliner Philharmoniker, l’Orchestre de chambre d’Europe et la Philharmonique tchèque. Parmi ses récents temps forts lyriques, citons Der Rosenkavalier avec le Metropolitan Opera de New York, Katya Kabanova de Janáček avec la Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin et Wozzeck avec l’Orchestre symphonique de Londres au Festival d’Aix en Provence.

L’éducation musicale revêt une importance primordiale pour Sir Simon, et son partenariat avec le Berliner Philharmoniker a ouvert de nouvelles voies avec le programme éducatif Zukunft@Bphil, lui valant le prix Comenius, le prix spécial Schiller de la ville de Mannheim, la Golden Camera et la médaille Urania. Lui et le Berliner Philharmoniker ont également été nommés ambassadeurs internationaux de l’UNICEF en 2004, une première pour un ensemble artistique. En 2019, Sir Simon a annoncé la création de la LSO East London Academy, développée par l’Orchestre symphonique de Londres en partenariat avec 10 arrondissements de l’est de Londres. Ce programme gratuit vise à identifier et à développer le potentiel des jeunes Londoniens de 11 à 18 ans présentant un talent musical exceptionnel, indépendamment de leur milieu ou de leur situation financière. Sir Simon a été anobli par Sa Majesté la reine Elizabeth II en 1994 et a reçu l’Ordre du Mérite en 2014. Il a reçu l’Ordre du Mérite à Berlin en 2018. En 2019, Sir Simon a reçu la liberté de la Ville de Londres.

Sa première saison (23/24) en tant que chef principal de l’Orchestre symphonique de la Bayerischer Rundfunk comprendra des tournées aux États-Unis et en Europe, des concerts d’Idomeneo, ainsi qu’une importante nouvelle commande de Thomas Adès. Il apparaîtra également dans des concerts avec l’Orchestre de chambre Mahler, le Berliner Philharmoniker, l’Orchestre de chambre d’Europe, la Philharmonique tchèque, l’Orchestre symphonique de Londres et au Festival de Verbier 2024.

Fabio Luisi est un chef d’orchestre reconnu pour la rigueur de son interprétation. Aussi bien à l’étranger que dans son pays natal, l’Italien s’est illustré comme Directeur général de la musique de l’Opéra de Zurich. Il a été Chef principal du Metropolitan Opera de New York de 2011 à 2017, un poste qu’il occupait auparavant à l’Orchestre Symphonique de Vienne, mais aussi Directeur musical de l’Orchestre de la Suisse romande, Directeur général de la musique de la Staatskapelle et du Staatsoper de Dresde, ou encore Chef principal du MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra de Leipzig pour ne citer qu’eux. Récompensé d’un Grammy, il a remporté le prix très convoité de la critique italienne Prix Franco Abbiati, le Grifo d’Oro de la ville de Gênes et a été promu Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana et Commedatore de l’Ordine della Stella.

« Icône de la musique ancienne » d’après le Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reinhard Goebel est une référence mondiale des répertoires des XVIIe, XVIIIe, et début XIXe siècles. Parmi ses récent succès critiques figure l’album multi-primé Beethoven’s World (Sony Classical), sur lequel on peut entendre de remarquables ensembles allemands (WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Münchner Rundfunkorchester), dix solistes et sept créations mondiales. En 2021/22, le CD New Mozarts, interprété avec le Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, se concentre sur des arrangements et compositions (enregistrements pour la plupart inédits) de Mozart. Goebel est en outre le fondateur du légendaire ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln, qu’il dirige depuis 33 ans.

L’éclatante carrière de l’Italien Claudio Vandelli lui ouvre les portes des plus grandes salles (Philharmonie de Berlin, Royal Albert Hall) pour diriger des formations telles que le Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, le Gürzenich Orchestra Köln et les Hamburger Symphoniker. Il est actuellement chef principal des Würth Philharmoniker, fondés en 2017, et chef invité permanent du Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra de Moscou, avec lequel il vient de célébrer ses 10 ans en résidence. Claudio Vandelli s’attèle avec passion à former les nouvelles générations de musiciens d’orchestre professionnels. Parmi les ensembles de talents qu’il a accompagnés, on peut citer les trois formations orchestrales du Verbier Festival et, plus récemment, le Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, en résidence au Tsinandali Festival en Géorgie depuis septembre 2019.