Kristjan Järvi (, alternate (U.S.) spelling: Kristian Järvi) (born 13 June 1972,

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

) is an

Estonian American Estonian Americans ( et, Ameerika eestlased) are Americans who are of Estonian ancestry, mainly descendants of people who left Estonia before and especially during World War II. According to the 2021 American Community Survey, around 29,000 Ameri ...

conductor,

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and producer born in

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, younger son of the conductor

Neeme Järvi Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, ...

and brother of conductor

Paavo Järvi Paavo Järvi (; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian-American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to Liilia Järvi and the Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also mu ...

and

flutist The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with Reed (instrument), reeds, a fl ...

Maarika Järvi.

Early life

When Järvi was age 7, his family immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and settled in

Shrewsbury, New Jersey Shrewsbury is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Centrally located in the Jersey Shore region in the New York Metropolitan area, the borough is an historic bedroom commun ...

. He became an American citizen in 1985. He grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Järvi studied piano with Nina Svetlanova at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

. He later went on to study conducting at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

under

Kenneth Kiesler Kenneth Kiesler (born August 18, 1953) is an American symphony orchestra and opera conductor and mentor to conductors. Kiesler is conductor laureate of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra where he was music director from 1980 to 2000 and founder and ...

Career

From 1998 to 2000, Järvi was Assistant Conductor to

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...

at the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

. He and the composer Gene Pritsker co-founded the Absolute Ensemble, based in

, in 1993, with Järvi as its music director. In 2007, Järvi and the Absolute Ensemble were awarded the Deutsche Bank Prize for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. Järvi was Chief Conductor and Music Director of

NorrlandsOperan The NorrlandsOperan (literal translation, ''The Norrland's Opera''; NOP), is a Swedish opera company in Umeå, located in Norrland, Sweden. The ownership of NOP is divided between the Umeå Municipality (40%) and the Västerbotten County Council ...

from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2009, Järvi was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the

Tonkünstler Orchestra The Tonkunstler Orchestra (German: ''Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich'', ) is an Austrian orchestra based in Vienna and Sankt Pölten, Lower Austria. Origin of the name The orchestra's name has its origins in the ''Tonkünstler-Soziet� ...

, Vienna. Järvi is also the current Artistic Advisor to the

Kammerorchester Basel The chamber orchestra Kammerorchester Basel (also: Kammerorchesterbasel) was founded in Basel, Switzerland, in 1984. In the tradition of Paul Sacher's ''Basler Kammerorchester'', its focus is on both early music and contemporary classical music. ...

and the conductor and founder of the

Baltic Sea Philharmonic Baltic Sea Philharmonic (formerly ''Baltic Youth Philharmonic'') is an orchestra which consists of musicians from countries around Baltic Sea. The orchestra's conductor is Kristjan Järvi. The orchestra was established in 2008 by the initiative o ...

(formerly Baltic Youth Philharmonic). In April 2011, Järvi was appointed the next chief conductor of the

MDR Symphony Orchestra MDR may refer to: Biology * MDR1, an ATP-dependent cellular efflux pump affording multiple drug resistance * Mammalian Diving reflex * Medical device reporting * Multiple drug resistance, when a microorganism has become resistant to multiple drugs ...

effective with the 2012-2013 season, with an initial contract of 3 years. His MDR contract was extended in 2015. In March 2017, the MDR announced that is to conclude his MDR Symphony Orchestra after the close of the 2017-2018 season. In addition to a Grammy nomination, Järvi has previously been awarded the German Record Critics Prize and a Swedish Grammy for the recording of

Hilding Rosenberg Hilding Constantin Rosenberg (June 21, 1892 – May 18, 1985)Lyne Peter H. Rosenberg, Hilding (Constantin). In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. was a Swedish composer and conductor. He is commonly reg ...

's opera "Isle of Bliss". He has recorded

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

's ''

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

'' with the Tonkünstler Orchestra and Absolute Ensemble. While Järvi's repertoire includes pieces from the Classic and Romantic periods, he is also a specialist for 20th-century composers and contemporary music, having commissioned works by

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in pa ...

Heinz Karl Gruber Heinz Karl "Nali" Gruber (born 3 January 1943), who styles himself HK Gruber professionally, is an Austrian composer, conductor, double bass player and singer. He is a leading figure of the so-called Third Viennese School. Career Gruber is said to ...

Erkki-Sven Tüür Erkki-Sven Tüür (born 16 October 1959) is an Estonian composer. Life and career Tüür () was born in Kärdla on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. He studied flute and percussion at the Tallinn Music School from 1976 to 1980 and composition w ...

Ezequiel Viñao Ezequiel Viñao (born July 21, 1960 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine- American composer. He emigrated to the United States in 1980 and studied at the Juilliard School. His compositions include ''La Noche de las Noches'' (1989) for string quartet ...

Peeter Vähi Peeter Vähi (born 18 May 1955, Tartu) is a classical Estonian composer. Vähi's work ''Relaxatio'', written in 1992 and inspired by Asian intonal elements of Tibetan canticles, is a noted electronic work of psychotherapeutic music.Mark Rais. ...

Dave Soldier David Sulzer (born November 6, 1956) is an American neuroscientist and musician. He is a professor at Columbia University Medical Center in the departments of psychiatry, neurology, and pharmacology. Sulzer's laboratory investigates the interact ...

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...

and

Gediminas Gelgotas Gediminas Gelgotas (born 12 June 1986 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian composer, conductor and self-performing artist. Gelgotas' music is known to captivate younger and new audiences of classical music. The composer made his most recent internatio ...

among others. In 2014, Järvi and the French record label Naïve Classique launched the 'Kristjan Järvi Sound Project', an ongoing series featuring recordings from all of Järvi's ensembles. Järvi defies musical orthodoxy and pursues his pioneering ideas and concepts with three bands and orchestras: Together with Gene Pritsker he co-founded the New York-based classical-hip-hop-jazz group “Absolute Ensemble”. Järvi is founder-conductor and artistic director of the “Baltic Sea Philharmonic” and he is leader of the “Sunbeam Production” in-house band “Nordic Pulse. As a recording artist Järvi has more than 60 albums to his credit, from Hollywood soundtracks such as “Cloud Atlas”, “Sense 8” (both productions of the Wachowski sisters), “Hologram for the King” (directed by Tom Tykwer) and award-winning albums on Sony Classical and Chandos, to his eponymous series: the “Kristjan Järvi Sound Project” and recording for

Max Richter Max Richter (; ; born 22 March 1966) is a German-born British composer and pianist. He works within postminimalist and contemporary classical styles. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the University of Edinbur ...

. In 2016 Kristjan Järvi started his own Production Company Sunbeam Productions in order to being able to bring unique live music experiences to his audiences. Kristjan recently signed a record deal with BMG – Modern Recordings. Where in 2020 he released his first own Album “Nordic Escapes” After “Snow Maiden” and “Swan Lake”, Kristjan´s own arrangements of Tchaikovsky´s Theatre Works series on Sony Classical takes off with its third release: “Sleeping Beauty”. Next releases will be “The Nutcracker”

Composer

As a composer Järvi have active many compositions, of modern style and some composed with the german composer

Johnny Klimek Johnny Klimek (born 18 August 1962) is an Australian musician, music producer, and composer, best known for his innovative work in the underground electronica music scene and for his film scores. Life and career Klimek was born in Melbourne, A ...

of Klimek- Tykwer- Heil fame, and some for orchestra, vocal, chorus or synth instruments. Some of his partial compositions are: * ''Rattle'', with Johnny Klimek (2019) * ''Pendleonium'', with Johnny Klimek (2019) * ''NEBULA'' (2019) * ''Kritical Mass'' (2018) * ''Babylon Charleston'' (2018), for the series ''

Babylon Berlin ''Babylon Berlin'' is a German neo-noir television series. Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten. It is loosely based on novels by German author Volker Kutscher. The series premiered on 13 O ...

''. His latest Album is: Nordic Escapes , released in August 2020 on Modern Recordings ( BMG)

References

External links

Kristjan Järvi official website
*
Dorn Music GmbH agency page on Kristjan Järvi

Absolute Ensemble official site

Bibliography

*Järvi, Kristjan (2014): "A Soundtrack to Our Lives..." . In: Stoppe, Sebastian (ed.), Film in Concert: Film Scores and their Relation to Classical Concert Music, pp. 131–144. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvi, Kristjan 1972 births Estonian conductors (music) Estonian emigrants to the United States Living people Manhattan School of Music alumni Musicians from New Jersey Musicians from New York City Musicians from Tallinn People from Rumson, New Jersey University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni 21st-century conductors (music)