2025 Pärnu Music Festival
16 – 25 July 2025

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

“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” says Paavo Järvi, “and whilst the world will be celebrating his landmark 90th birthday this year, it is doubly meaningful for us to celebrate here in Pärnu, as Arvo has been a close family friend for as long as I can remember.”

All the Järvi family pay tribute to Arvo Pärt at this year’s festival. Neeme Järvi leads the Academy Youth Orchestra in the opening concert with Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, followed two days later by Kristjan Järvi and Nordic Pulse in a special programme entitled “Pärt Mirrored”.

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.

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).

Additional highlights include the festival debuts of guest soloists Iveta Apkalna (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 music 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.

Link to the festival home page: parnumusicfestival.ee