Founded in 2011, The Estonian Festival Orchestra was created by Paavo Järvi and is the resident summer orchestra at the Pärnu Music Festival after a lifelong ambition of Järvi’s to create a hand-picked orchestra, bringing together the best of Estonian talent and leading musicians from Europe’s top orchestras, resulting in performances which are now gaining international acclaim.

“An important component in creating the orchestra was to​‘match-make’ the players in a professional way but within the festival atmosphere” says Järvi. ​“This unifying spirit is what drives the orchestra and makes me particularly proud as its father figure.”

Before August 2017 the Estonian Festival Orchestra had performed only in Pärnu, but within less than two years they have made four tours including performances in neighbouring countries around the Baltic coast and at Scandinavia’s most prominent festivals, a major European tour celebrating Estonia100, BBC Proms and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie debuts and an extensive tour of Japan.

For Paavo Järvi, the creation of the Estonian Festival Orchestra is potentially one of his most important musical achievements to date – a recognition of his native country and a celebration of its cultural identity within Europe.