The London Philharmonic Orchestra announced on Tuesday that Paavo Järvi will succeed Edward Gardner as chief conductor from the 2028-29 season, when Gardner’s current contract comes to an end.
Järvi, 63, was born in Estonia into a musical dynasty. His father, Neeme is also a conductor, his younger brother Kristjan too. The family moved to the US in 1980, and Järvi studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein.
Over a storied career he has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Malmö Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony and the Orchestre de Paris, where he was music director from 2010-16.
He has been the artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen for more than two decades. In 2011 he founded the Pärnu music festival and its resident Estonian Festival Orchestra, and since 2019 he has been the chief conductor of Tonhalle-Orchester, Zurich. A regular visitor to the UK with these orchestras and as a guest conductor of the Philharmonia as well as the LPO, Järvi said it was a New Year 2025 tour to China with the orchestra that confirmed for him their chemistry.
“When I first conducted the LPO it was immediately obvious that we matched well, that there was energy. I usually try not to work during Christmas and New Year but when they asked me to conduct them on the tour I accepted because I understood this was something very special,” he said.
“I grew up listening to recordings by this wonderful historic orchestra,” he said. “They’ve been famous in our house since I was a child.”
He is looking forward to embedding himself in the UK’s musical world which he knows well – he has had a home in the capital for 30 years, as well as bases in the US and Estonia. “The London classical music scene is unlike anywhere else in the world, nothing compares to it. There are such riches and such an unbelievable offering of great music and musicians.”
He acknowledged the challenges facing all classical musicians today around building audiences and challenging assumptions that this music is “difficult” or “elitist”. “We are all missionaries for our art form; more than ever it is in need of strong advocacy and exposure.”
Collaborations with DJs, with rock musicians and midnight concerts are among the initiatives he’s been involved in with his other orchestras. “There is an incredible range of things we are constantly trying. Some are more successful than others, but we will keep trying.” He added that this must not come at the expense of diminishing or dumbing down the actual music. “But people generally don’t grow up listening to classical music, our job is to find ways to bring it closer to the surface.”
While it’s too early to reveal any programming details with the LPO, he knows that his advocacy of his homeland’s music and its contemporary composers will feature in his plans. “I commission four or five pieces a year from Estonian composers … we will certainly be programming Estonian music, new and old. But also British music – there’s such a lively and important new music scene in the UK that there will be plenty of choice.”
This is an orchestra, he said, who can play anything extremely well.
These are sentiments echoed by Edward Gardner, who has been principal conductor since 2021. “I’ve never met an orchestra who can assimilate such a variety of styles,” he said. “The LPO have an ability to turn corners with completely different repertoire, from Mozart to modern with everything in between, and always with such openness and friendliness.”
Gardner still has over two years in post, and many projects to come with the orchestra; April’s semi-staged Wozzeck is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the Southbank’s Multitudes festival. “It’s strange to be talking about [my departure] so far in advance, but we wanted to make the announcement now so the wonderful musicians of the LPO know that they have a musician of the quality of Paavo coming for the next era,” he said.
Gardner is currently preparing a Ring Cycle with Norwegian National Opera, where he is music director. “I felt there was a bottleneck of projects coming up and it just wouldn’t be fair for an orchestra of the stature and brilliance of the LPO not to have my full commitment.”
The LPO was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932 and is today one of the resident orchestras at London’s Southbank Centre. It’s been the resident symphony orchestra for the Glyndebourne festival since 1964, and also performs in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden as well as touring internationally.
Audiences and musicians in London will have the chance to see the chemistry in action on Wednesday: Järvi conducts a programme of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, at the Royal Festival Hall on 4 March.
