The Most Famous
CONDUCTORS from Estonia
This page contains a list of the greatest Estonian Conductors. The pantheon dataset contains 128 Conductors, 2 of which were born in Estonia. This makes Estonia the birth place of the 16th most number of Conductors behind Ukraine, and Spain.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Estonian Conductors of all time. This list of famous Estonian Conductors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Paavo Järvi (b. 1962)
With an HPI of 51.66, Paavo Järvi is the most famous Estonian Conductor. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages on wikipedia.
Paavo Järvi (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈpɑːʋo ˈjærʋi]; born 30 December 1962) is an Estonian-American conductor. He has been chief conductor of Zurich's Tonhalle since 2020.
2. Eri Klas (1939 - 2016)
With an HPI of 47.05, Eri Klas is the 2nd most famous Estonian Conductor. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Eri Klas (7 June 1939 – 26 February 2016) was an Estonian conductor. Klas was born into a Jewish family in Tallinn. His mother was pianist Anna Klas. His father, Eduard Klas, was killed in 1941, during the Holocaust. Klas mainly worked in the Nordic scene, but might be best remembered for his work leading the now defunct Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1999 to 2001 Klas was music advisor to the Israel Sinfonietta Beersheba, Israel. He premiered Alfred Schnittke's 1st Cello Concerto (Munich Philharmonic, 1986) and Peer Gynt ballet (Hamburg State Opera, 1989), and worked on the diffusion of the Estonian symphonic repertory. Klas was also active as a pedagogue, holding professorships at the Sibelius Academy (1993–97) and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (1997 until his death), where he received an honorary doctorate. Klas was decorated with the Order of the Lion of Finland (1992, on the occasion of Finland's 75th Independence Day) and the Estonian Order of the White Star. He was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 1986, he was named the People's Artist of the USSR. An Estonian lightweight junior boxing champion, he was also a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee. From 1972 until 1991, he was married to ballet dancer, singer and actress Ülle Ulla.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Estonian conductors born between 1939 and 1962. Of these 2, 1 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Estonian conductors include Paavo Järvi. The most famous deceased Estonian conductors include Eri Klas.
