Kristjan Järvi

Kristjan Järvi ( born June 13, 1972 in Tallinn) is an American pianist and conductor of Estonian origin.

Life

Järvi was born in 1972 as the youngest son of conductor Neeme Järvi in Tallinn. His brother Paavo Järvi is also a conductor. 1980 the family moved to New Jersey. Järvi studied piano with Nina Svetlanova at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and conducting with Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

He is the head of the company founded in 1993 by him and Charles Coleman Absolute Ensemble in New York City. In 2007, Järvi and his ensemble were awarded the Bremen Music Festival Prize of the Commerzbank Foundation. From 1998 to 2000 he was assistant to Esa- Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2000 to 2004 he was chief conductor and music director of the Norrland Opera in Umeå and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm. From 2004 to 2009 he was head of the Musicians Orchestra Lower Austria in Vienna. Järvi has been the artistic advisor to the Basel Chamber Orchestra and co-founder of the Baltic Youth Philharmonic.

As an orchestral conductor Kristjan Järvi edited a wide-ranging repertoire with music from the 17th century to contemporary music. He led, inter alia, Works on HK Gruber, Erkki -Sven Tüür, Peeter Vähi, Ezequiel Viñao, Joe Zawinul and Arvo Pärt, to whom he has a close working relationship. As a guest conductor he has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. He participated in 30 CD recordings, won the Swedish music prize Grammis, the Prize of the German Record Critics' Award and was nominated for the Grammy Awards. The music critic Anthony Tommasini courted him in the New York Times as the rebirth of Leonard Bernstein.

Since 2012, Järvi is Chief Conductor of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig.

Private

He married his first wife, violinist Leila Josefowicz with the Canadian. His second wife was living with the Australian flautist Hayley Melitta. Järvi has four children and lives in Florida and Leipzig.