Neeme Järvi
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Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian American conductor.


Early life

Järvi was born in
Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
. He initially studied music there, and later in
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Early in his career, he held posts with the Estonian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn. In 1971 he won first prize in the International Conductors Competition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Järvi emigrated to the United States in 1980 with his family. He became an American citizen in 1985.


Career

In 1982, he became the principal conductor of the
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (GSO; ) is a Swedish symphony orchestra based in Gothenburg. The GSO is resident at the Gothenburg Concert Hall at Götaplatsen. The orchestra received the title of the National Orchestra of Sweden () in 1997. Ba ...
, and held the post for 22 years, the longest-serving principal conductor in the orchestra's history. During his Gothenburg tenure, the recording profile and reputation of the orchestra greatly increased. He also helped to secure corporate sponsorship from
Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...
that allowed the orchestra to increase in size from 80 to 110 players. He retained his post in Gothenburg until 2004, and now holds the title of Principal Conductor Emeritus (''Chefdirigent Emeritus'') with the orchestra. Concurrently, Järvi was also Principal Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) between 1984 and 1988. At the time, he referred to his two orchestras as his "Berlin Philharmonic" (RSNO) and his "Vienna Philharmonic" (Gothenburg). With the RSNO, he made a number of landmark recordings for Chandos, notably
Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...
and Dvořák cycles as well as
Strauss Strauss, Strauß, or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria ''Strauß'' is usually spelled ''Strauss'' (the letter " ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). In classical music, "Strauss" most com ...
's tone poems, various
Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded ...
pieces, including Symphonies Nos. 4, 7 and 10, and the two violin concertos featuring Lydia Mordkovitch. After a guest-conducting appearance in December 2006 after a nine-year absence from the RSNO, the orchestra named him their Conductor Laureate. In the United States, Järvi became Music Director of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall (Detroit, Michigan), Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown, Detroit, ...
in 1990. He served until 2005, and is now its Music Director Emeritus. In November 1996, Järvi conducted a joint concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in Camden, New Jersey, to raise funds for the Philadelphia Orchestra, which was in the midst of a strike. He donated his services and received no fee for this concert. He received praise from US orchestra musicians for this gesture, and expressed a lack of concern about the possibility that orchestral managers would be angry at him for doing so. Järvi became Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) in 2005, with an initial three-year contract. With the 2007 decision by the NJSO to sell its "Golden Age" collection of string instruments, there was press speculation as to whether Järvi would renew his contract with the NJSO, as he stated that their acquisition of this collection was an important factor in his decision to accept the music directorship. When asked about the possibility of leaving after 2008, he stated: "It's very possible, but I haven't thought about it yet." In October 2007, the NJSO announced that Järvi had extended his contract as music director through the 2008–2009 season. In February 2008, the orchestra announced the conclusion of Järvi's tenure as the NJSO's music director at the end of the 2008–2009 season. In March 2009, the NJSO announced that Järvi had agreed to serve as the orchestra's artistic adviser, and named him their conductor laureate, after the scheduled conclusion of his contract as music director. In September 2005, Järvi became Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orchestra of
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, with an initial contract of four years. In February 2008, the Residentie Orchestra announced the extension of Järvi's contract as Chief Conductor through 2011. In November 2009, the Residentie Orchestra further extended his contract through the 2012–2013 season. In August 2009, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Järvi as its next music director, for an initial contract of three years. In November 2010, Järvi resigned over the dismissal of the orchestra's director. In September 2010, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande named Järvi as its ninth artistic and musical director, as of 2012, with an initial contract of three years.


Body of work

Järvi's discography includes almost 500 recordingsNeeme Järvi
Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester. Access-date 25 March 2025
for labels such as BIS, Chandos and
Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...
. He is best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
, and he has championed the work of his fellow Estonians Eduard Tubin and
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 p ...
(whose ''Credo'' he premiered in 1968). His interpretations of
Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius (; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his countr ...
with the Gothenburg Symphony are also well known and his complete set of the Glazunov symphonies under Orfeo remains highly regarded (not to mention his recordings of Glazunov's orchestral works such as Scenes de Ballet, From the Middle Ages, The Sea, and the Raymonda Suite). He has also recorded several works that have rarely been recorded in their complete form – among them all of
Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...
's orchestral music, including the complete
incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...
for ''
Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five-Act (drama), act play in verse written in 1867 by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. It is one of Ibsen's best known and most widely performed plays. ''Peer Gynt'' chronicles the journey of its title character fr ...
'', as well as
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...
's complete incidental music for Alexander Ostrovsky's play ''Snegurochka'' (''The Snow Maiden''), and all three of Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonies and orchestral suites. On SACD he has recorded Tchaikovsky's complete symphonies (with the Gothenburg SO – BIS label) and ballets (with the Bergen PO – Chandos label). He has also made SACD recordings of music by
Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
, Bruckner,
Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
, Raff and Atterberg for Chandos with his old orchestra, the Royal Scottish NO. Järvi has given an annual master class, the Neeme Järvi Summer Academy, held until 2008 in
Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...
, Estonia during the
David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (; – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian violinist, List of violists, violist, and Conducting, conductor. He was also Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR (1953), and Laureate of the ...
festival. Since 2009, the masterclass has been held during the Leigo Music days in South Estonia. In addition, he has helped raise funds for the Estonian Academy of Music, which opened in September 2000. For his extensive, high-quality discography, Järvi received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2018
Gramophone Awards The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the Classical music, classical record industry. The British awards are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the ...
.


Personal life

Järvi and his wife Liilia have three children, the conductors
Paavo Järvi Paavo Järvi (; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian conductor. He has been chief conductor of Zurich's Tonhalle since 2020. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia (then occupied by the Soviet Union), to Liilia Järvi and the Estoni ...
and Kristjan Järvi and the flautist Maarika Järvi. After emigrating to the United States, the Järvi family settled initially in Shrewsbury, New Jersey.Wise, Brian
"A Maestro And His Plans For Reshaping An Orchestra"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 18 April 2004. Accessed 27 September 2015.
He and his wife now reside in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.


References


External links


Neeme Järvi official website
*
David Oistrakh festival
December 1987 in Chicago {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvi, Neeme 1937 births Living people Musicians from Tallinn Neeme Estonian conductors (music) Soviet conductors (music) 21st-century American musicians 20th-century Estonian musicians 21st-century Estonian musicians Soviet emigrants to the United States Estonian diaspora in the United States People from Rumson, New Jersey American male conductors (music) 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century conductors (music) Deutsche Grammophon artists Tallinn Georg Ots Music School alumni Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni People's Artists of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic Honoured Workers of the Arts Industry of the Estonian SSR Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 3rd Class Knights of the Order of the Polar Star Principal conductors of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Music directors of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Music directors of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande