XV Parnu Music Festival

Series

PÄRNU MUSIC FESTIVAL

16 - 25 JULY 2025

CREDO

ARVO PÄRT 90

“I believe that Estonian culture is best represented through music which naturally expresses our national voice. Our country may be small, but Arvo Pärt’s iconic music is loved worldwide.”

Paavo Järvi

• The 2025 Pärnu Music Festival pays tribute to Arvo Pärt on his 90^th birthday and celebrates the festival’s 15th edition in Estonia’s Summer Capital.

• This year’s programme commences with a special Järvi Academy concert at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Tallinn (15 July) before travelling south for a further 10 days of concerts in Pärnu (16 – 25 July) led by Paavo Järvi and family.

• Paavo Järvi conducts the Estonian Festival Orchestra in four concerts (19, 20 and 24, 25 July) all featuring works by Arvo Pärt, including Silhouette - dedicated to and premiered by Paavo and the Orchestre de Paris in 2015 at the opening concert of the Paris Philharmonie - and closing the festival with Credo - the work which provoked the Soviet Regime at its 1968 premiere in Tallinn, led by Neeme Järvi.

• Neeme Järvi and the Järvi Academy Symphony Orchestra open the festival with Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten (16 July)

• Kristjan Järvi and Nordic Pulse present Pärt in Mirror, a specially curated programme that interweaves the music of Pärt with new works and improvisations (18 July).
  
  
• Championing Estonian music and musicians has always been an important part of the festival and this year Kalev Kuljus is soloist in the Estonian premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Oboe Concerto, co-commissioned by the festival (19 July). Further commissions include new works by Elis Hallik (20 July) and Alisson Kruusmaa (25 July), whilst violinists Hans Christian Aavik and Triin Ruubel, are the soloists in a performance of Tabula Rasa (20 July).
  
  
• Further highlights include the festival debuts of guest soloists Iveta Alpkalna (24 July) and Vilde Frang (25 July) who join Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra for performances of the Poulenc Organ Concerto and Beethoven Violin Concerto in the closing concerts.

• The Pärnu Music Festival and Järvi Academy involve more than 300 musicians, students and teachers from around the world, and is recognised as Estonia’s leading classical summer event. Located in a secluded bay on the Baltic Sea,130 km south of Tallinn, Pärnu is an idyllic location for those seeking the real Estonian experience.