Neeme Järvi is one of the busiest international conducting stars, and has recorded an amazingly wide repertoire of music. He was born in Tallinn, the capitol city of then-independent Estonia. It was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, taken by the advancing German Army in 1941, and retaken by the Soviets in 1945. He was brought up in the USSR's system for developing musical talent. After his graduation from the Tallinn Music School, where he studied percussion and choral conducting, he continued at the Leningrad Conservatory (1955-1960). His teachers in conducting were Nikolaï Rabinovich and Yevgeny Mravinsky. By then he had already made his conducting debut at the age of eighteen in Tallin. During the next several years he took a leading role in the musical life of Estonia. In 1963 he took the position of Music Director of the Estonian Radio & Television Orchestra. He also founded the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. For thirteen years he was the Chief Conductor of Opera House Estonia in Tallinn. From 1976 to 1980 he was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Estonian State Symphony Orchestra, then a newly-formed orchestra. In the late 1970s he fame spread throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and he received favorable notices for Western trips. He conducted the USSR's first-ever performances of Der Rosenkavalier and Porgy and Bess. While at the ESSO he showed an interest in finding and performing unjustly neglected repertory, both by little known and major name composers. One of the results of this was a championing of the leading 20th Century Estonian composer Eduard Tubin, and the first performances of works by Aarvo Pärt. In 1979 he premiered a Pärt composition, "Credo," which marked that composer's newest stylistic development. It also used words from the Bible. Järvi scheduled it on his own recognition of its importance, without clearing it with Communist Party or Composers' Union officials. The resulting controversy and official disfavor made Järvi determined to emigrate. He was permitted to leave in 1980 and within a month made his debut performances with the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic.. He quickly received important appointments as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in England (1981-1983) and Music Director of the Royal Scottish Orchestra (1984-1988), the Gothenburg (Sweden) Symphony Orchestra (beginning in 1982). He also guest conducts widely. He has recorded for Bis, Deutsche Gramophon, Orfeo, and Chandos labels. These projects have included cycles of orchestral music by Sibelius, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tubin, Brahms, Schumann, Shostakovich, and many other composers. In 1990 he assumed the post of Music Director of the Detroit Symphony. With that orchestra he has made thirty of his over 100 recordings on the Chandos label. When asked about his favorite recordings, he names two: Rudolf Tobias's "Jonah's Mission" on the Bis label, and another Bis recording, Mahler's "Symphony number 8." All proceeds from this release go to benefit the Estonian children who were orphaned when a ferry sank in the Baltic in September, 1994, with the loss of a thousand lives. Järvi and his wife, Lillia, have three children. They are all professional musicians: Their son Paavo is becoming well known internationally as a conductor, with appointments as Principal Guest Conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Their daughter, Maarika, is Principal Flutist with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid, and their son Kristjan is the founder and conductor of the Absolut Ensemble of New York City. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide