Estonian Festival Orchestra prepares for South Korea and China tour

The Estonian Festival Orchestra is rehearsing in Pärnu for an upcoming tour of South Korea and China, ERR reports. The 83-member ensemble is led by conductor Paavo Järvi.

The programme will pair Estonian and Nordic music with works from the wider European classical repertoire. The orchestra will perform music by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt’s “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten”.

Soloists on the tour will include violinist Clara-Jumi Kang of South Korea and Germany, performing Brahms’s Violin Concerto, and French pianist Alexandre Kantorow, performing Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

The musicians are rehearsing at Pärnu Concert Hall, which orchestra representatives describe as the ensemble’s home hall. “Coming to Pärnu is like coming home for the orchestra,” Järvi said. He told ERR’s Aktuaalne kaamera that the orchestra always tries to take Estonian music wherever it travels.

Järvi and the full orchestra plan to return to Pärnu for the 2027 Pärnu Music Festival.