The Academy is currently preparing for its final concert on 15 July. Rehearsals regularly feature members of the Järvi conducting dynasty working closely with the participants.

“The opportunity to study with world-renowned conductors Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, and Leonid Grin, who was Paavo Järvi’s teacher, has made our conducting
masterclasses a destination for young conductors from around the world. Regardless of where they come from, ambitious young conductors increasingly see Pärnu as an
important stepping stone in building an international career,” said Kristjan Hallik, Executive Director of the Pärnu Music Festival.

According to Hallik, international interest in the Academy’s string, wind and percussion masterclasses has also continued to grow. “This is the result of our consistent efforts to bring distinguished professors from leading music academies to Pärnu every year. This summer, the faculty includes Kristine Balanas, Mark Gothoni, Michael Foyle, Lilli Maijala, Jan Ickert, Olivier Thiery and several other internationally acclaimed musicians. They work closely with the participants, helping them refine both their instrumental technique and their artistic expression,” Hallik said.

Supporting young Estonian musicians remains one of the Academy’s core missions. “Estonia’s leading music schools and conservatories are once again represented by many
of their most talented students, helping us maintain a healthy balance between local and international participants. This year, 75 of the Academy’s 130 participants come from
abroad, while 55 are from Estonia. It is an ideal balance: Estonian students can learn in a familiar environment while benefiting from the international atmosphere and
networking opportunities that the Pärnu Music Festival offers,” Hallik added.

The Järvi family has always regarded the development of young Estonian musicians as one of its most important priorities. This commitment led to the creation of the Järvi
Academy masterclasses, which have grown alongside the Pärnu Music Festival into one of its defining educational initiatives.

Järvi Academy 2026 at a Glance
– 130 participants
– 110 instrumentalists (strings, winds and percussion)
– 20 conducting students
– Participants from 28 countries: Estonia, Latvia, Germany, France, Switzerland, Armenia, Türkiye, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, the United States, China, Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Israel, Greece, Lithuania, Mongolia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Singapore, Slovenia, Denmark and Hungary.

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The annual Pärnu Music Festival (Pärnu muusikafestival) began on Wednesday evening with a concert conducted by maestro Neeme Järvi. He and his two conductor sons, Kristjan and Paavo, will join others in leading performances throughout the 10-day event.

On Thursday, leading Estonian cellist Theodor Sink performed with the Järvi Academy Sinfonietta, made up of young professional Estonian musicians, under young conductors from the Järvi Academy’s international conducting course. Among those conducting the concert was Estonian conductor Kaur Pennert.

On Friday, Kristjan Järvi and Nordic Pulse gave two “Solstice” concerts inspired by midsummer. At the heart of the program was Kristjan Järvi’s “Midnight Sun,” alongside works by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) in a new interpretation by Nordic Pulse, Kristjan Järvi’s band.

On Saturday, Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra (Eesti Festivaliorkester), which Paavo founded, open with the world premiere of Tõnu Kõrvits’s viola concerto “Salaaed” (“The Secret Garden”), featuring Berlin Philharmonic principal violist Amihai Grosz. On Sunday, Latvian soloists Kristīne and Margarita Balanas will perform Philip Glass’s “Double Concerto for violin and cello” with the orchestra under Järvi.

Pianists Rudolf Buchbinder and Alice Sara Ott appear next Friday and Saturday (July 17 and 18) in Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3. The festival also presents world premieres by Estonian composers Liisa Hõbepappel (on Sunday, July 12) and Evelin Seppar (on Friday, July 17).

The Pärnu Music Festival’s Young Talent program opens Tuesday. Founded by Paavo Järvi, it showcases emerging international soloists. The first performers with Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra are violinist Paloma So, harpist Anaëlle Tourret and pianist Tähe-Lee Liiv.

On Monday, violinist Hans Christian Aavik returns with the chamber concert “Roots and Soundscapes.” That evening, Henri Christofer Aavik conducts the world premiere of Märt-Matis Lill’s flute concerto with the Pärnu City Orchestra, flautists Maarika Järvi and Monika Mattiesen.

Also on Monday, Pärnu’s St. Elizabeth’s Church hosts Järvi Academy student concerts during the day and a faculty concert in the evening.

The Järvi Academy concludes Wednesday with Triinu Piirsalu as soloist, conducted by young Academy conductors.

The Estonian Festival Orchestra’s chamber gala takes place Thursday, July 16.

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”As in 2016 and 2018, Paavo Järvi approached me with the request to write a new orchestral piece for him and the Estonian Festival Orchestra. I was happy, but also thought long and hard about what kind of piece this could be. Then the idea of composing an independent scherzo seemed appealing to me. Scherzi don’t necessarily have to be funny. They can – as we know from Chopin or Bruckner – also become spooky, grotesque or demonic. But I wanted to write a piece like this in terms of tempo or the gesture of movement. I worked here with the simultaneity of different tempi. There is, so to speak, a tempo of action and a tempo of perception. The difference between the two then hopefully creates a certain aura and mood in the listener.

 I then thought about the title for a long time, and my first impulse was to call the piece „Der Prime Minister tanzt“ (The Prime Minister Dances). There were several incidents whilst I was composing, for example with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin or with former Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas, where leading politicians wanted to gain popularity by showing levity. But I dropped the title. My music is not a day-to-day political commentary. My essays in “Postimees” or the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” can sometimes be that,  but they tend to be complementary to my artistic work. They do not duplicate. Rather, one inspires the other.

 “On the Ship of Fools” raises the theme to something more general, to something timeless. At the end of the Middle Ages there were several great books and stories on the subject  of the world as a madhouse. “In Praise of Folly” by Erasmus von Rotterdam is one of them, and so is the character of Till Eulenspiegel. I was particularly inspired by a sentence from the medieval novel “The Ship of Fools” by Sebastian Brant: “Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur – the world wants to be deceived, so it should be deceived”. If you look at the role of fake news in our time, in the years of pandemic and war, but also in all kinds of political activism, you know that this sentence is still valid after 500 years. People cheat on each other on Facebook and Instagram. Corona, climate change or genocide deniers of all kinds drag scientific knowledge into the dirt and win elections with it. Politicians put on shows to appear prominent and likeable rather than to solve urgent problems. And for reasons of contemporary political correctness, history is being rewritten, which is why we hardly know how we became what we are. These are all considerations that move me as I write.

“On the Ship of Fools” is written for a classical symphony orchestra of about eighty people with woodwinds, brass, strings, two harps and percussion. I always see the orchestra as an organic unit. I don’t break it up into blocks or ensembles. But the concert master and the leader of the second violins are challenged as soloists. Their solo dialogue also finds its echo in the woodwinds. In addition, there are always small-scale interactions between the brass and drums. In terms of form, dramaturgy and material, “On the Ship of Fools” often reflects my piece “And tired of happiness, they started to dance”, which Paavo Järvi premiered in Pärnu with the Estonian Festival Orchestra in 2018.

In the meantime, other works for large orchestras have been created and performed: “Before Leviathan Awakes” with Mihkel Kütson and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO), ” The Sea Within” with Pietari Inkinen and the German Radio Philharmonic, “Maria Anna, awake, in the next room ” with Andris Nelsons, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, “Of the Dying of the Stars” with Pablo Heras-Casado and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, “Bosom of Immense Light“ with Michail Gerts and the ERSO as well as with Juraj Valčuha and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The experiences from all these pieces and the work with the orchestras have also gone into my new piece. All these works live as art in the time in which they were created, but they, hopefully, transcend it at the same time and open up the possibility for listeners to understand the world and their lives in a different way than everyday opinion forums allow.”

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Arvo Pärt – Silouan’s Song (My Soul Yearns After You…, 1991)

Arvo Pärt – Trisagion (1992/1994)

Participants of Järvi Academy

Järvi Academy Sinfonietta

Musicologists Kristina Kõrver and Kai Kutman about the music of Arvo Pärt

Pricing

Limited number of tickets 25€/15€/50€ are available through Fienta or at the center’s information desk.

Supporter’s ticket of 50€ will entail a guided tour of the entire house after the concert. The guide will wait for you at our info desk.

NB! Please do not visit the concert when You are ill. If You’re unwell please let us know at least one hour before the concert (info@arvopart.ee) and we can refund the tickets.
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This summer, a concert lecture using a new format will take place in co-operation between the Arvo Pärt Centre and the Järvi Academy, where participants of the course as well as the public can become acquainted with the history of Arvo Pärt’s works and selected archive materials. 

The internationally renowned Pärnu Music Festival brings together a concert programme and music master classes and workshops as part of the Järvi Academy. The Järvi family have always felt passionately about the music education of young Estonians, which is why more than ten years ago they laid the foundations for comprehensive master classes, most of which take place in Pärnu.

As a part of the courses in 2021, the Järvi Academy is working with the Arvo Pärt Centre to conduct the first concert lectures, where the works of Arvo Pärt, performed by the Järvi Academy Sinfonietta and conducting students, will be accompanied by spoken additions. The concert will include a performance of Festina lente and Silouan’s Song, which will be introduced by musicologists Kristina Kõrver and Kai Kutman from the Arvo Pärt Centre.

According to Kristina Kõrver, the concert lecture provides a good opportunity to introduce exciting findings from Arvo Pärt’s rich personal archives and to share the fruits of the centre’s work so far: “We research and organise the archive materials as part of our daily work, but for the most part it remains hidden from visitors of the centre. During the concert lecture, however, we can disclose such things, take a closer look at the history of the creation of the works and sources of inspiration, and observe the composer’s creative process starting with his sketches.” She hopes that it will offer a novel experience for non-musicians as well, offering a glimpse behind the notes. “This concert can also be seen as a kind of exercise in listening or concentration, because the same work will be played twice, before and after the verbal introduction. Then everyone can consider whether and to what extent the two listening experiences are different,” Kõrver added.

The concert lecture in Estonian and English will take place on Saturday, 10 July at 1 pm at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa and is open to everyone. The event is part of the summer programme of the Pärnu Music Festival and the Järvi Academy and can also be watched live on the Pärnu Music Festival TV channel https://parnumusicfestival.tv/pmf

For more information:

Arvo Pärt Centre
Additional information:
Riin Eensalu
+372 5656 6605
riin@arvopart.ee

Kristjan Hallik
+372 56568754 
kristjan.hallik@parnumusicfestival.ee 

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A promenade concert dedicated to architect Olev Siinmaa’s 140th anniversary
Pärnu City Orchestra
Conductor Kaspar Mänd

Programme: Aavik, Tubin, Atterberg, Valgre

13.07 at 11 AM Pärnu Town Hall 
Järvi Academy Students
Järvi Academy string and wind instruments students

13.07 at 4 PM Pärnu kõlakoda
You Live in My Heart

Estonian Police and Border Guard Orchestra
Riivo Jõgi (conductor)
Uku Suviste (vocal)

Programme: Oit, Kikerpuu, Valgre, Suviste, Jobim, Howard etc.

15.07 at 3 PM Pärnu Elizabeth Church
To the Skies
New Ideas Chamber Orchestra NICO

Gediminas Gelgotas (conductor)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) – Chaconne (1718–1720)
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911) – Rising Dawn (Beauštanti aušrelė, 1908)
Max Richter (b. 1966) – On the Nature of Daylight (2004)
Gediminas Gelgotas (b. 1986) – Transitory (2015–2018)
Gediminas Gelgotas – Lock Me in Your Light, Saint Luke (2020)
Gediminas Gelgotas – To the Skies (2008/2019)

17.07 at 2 PM Pärnu kõlakoda

Most Beautiful Songs

The Orchestra of the Estonian Defence Forces

Teet Raik (conductor)

René Soom (bariton)

Program: Veebel, Saebelmann, Aare, Ehala, Raudmäe, Rannap etc.

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