Paavo Järvi

A conductor known for his broad expertise and eclectic tastes, Paavo Järvi (b. 1962) has championed music from Nordic countries and his native Estonia. Growing up in Tallinn, the son of the artistically omnivorous conductor Neeme Järvi, the young Paavo studied percussion and conducting under the Soviet music-education system. After the family moved to the U.S. in 1980, Järvi studied at the Pre-College division of the Juilliard School, followed by the Curtis Institute of Music. During the 1990s, he was chief conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and served stints as principal guest conductor with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Järvi’s break came in 2001, when the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra named him its 12th music director. Over the following decade, he drew acclaim for his performances of Sibelius, Stravinsky and Shostakovich, as well as of the work of fellow Estonians Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Eduard Tubin. As Järvi has assumed other directorships—including with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (from 2004), the Orchestre de Paris (2010-16) and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony (2015-22)—he has maintained an incisive and graceful yet unflashy podium style. Like his father, Järvi has recorded prolifically, including as music director of the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich since 2019.