Neeme Järvi

In 1971 he won first prize in the International Conductors Competition at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

[2] With the RSNO, he made a number of landmark recordings for Chandos, notably Prokofiev and Dvořák cycles as well as Strauss's tone poems, various Shostakovich pieces, including Symphonies Nos.

He received praise from US orchestra musicians for this gesture, and expressed a lack of concern about the possibility that orchestral managers would be angry at him for doing so.

[6] In February 2008, the orchestra announced the conclusion of Järvi's tenure as the NJSO's music director at the end of the 2008–2009 season.

[7] In March 2009, the NJSO announced that Järvi had agreed to serve as the orchestra's artistic adviser, and named him their conductor laureate, after the scheduled conclusion of his contract as music director.

[12] In August 2009, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Järvi as its next music director, for an initial contract of three years.

[14] In September 2010, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande named Järvi as its ninth artistic and musical director, as of 2012, with an initial contract of three years.

He is best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music, and he has championed the work of his fellow Estonians Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt (whose Credo he premiered in 1968).

He has also made SACD recordings of music by Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner, Raff and Atterberg for Chandos with his old orchestra, the Royal Scottish NO.