Estonian conductor to head Swiss orchestra

Estonian-born Neeme Järvi, one of the most renowned classical conductors in the world, has been appointed artistic director of the Suisse Romande Orchestra.

The Geneva-based orchestra said 73-year-old Järvi, who shook the former Soviet Union’s music world when he left for the United States in 1980, would take over the post next January and become its chief conductor in 2012.

In both posts he will replace Polish-born Marek Janowski, who has headed the orchestra since 2005 and is the latest in a series of top conductors who have led it since its foundation by Swiss maestro Ernest Ansermet in 1918.

Järvi studied in Leningrad – now St Petersburg – under Soviet maestro Yevgeny Mravinsky and headed Soviet Estonia’s main orchestras. He won several international prizes and was hailed in Moscow as a Soviet cultural icon, gaining major state awards.

But he was known to have chafed at restrictions on what music he could perform and on foreign travel and was allowed to leave the communist-ruled country with his family 30 years ago.

Järvi took US citizenship in 1987 and has directed and conducted major Western orchestras including Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony, the Royal Scottish National, the Detroit Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony.

He is currently chief conductor of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague and musical director of the Estonian National Symphony. A Suisse Romande spokesman said Järvi would continue to combine these posts with his work in Geneva.