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The elder son of conductor Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi has achieved quite a lot, including appointments leading the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and NHK Symphony Orchestra, among others. Although a musician of broad interests and a resident of the U.S. for the greater part of his life, he has continued to champion the music of his native Estonia in live performances and on disc. Blessed with directing gifts that transcend mere talent, he is among the handful of his generation's conductors regarded as true successors to the great maestros of the past. A dynamic recording artist, Järvi regularly issues multiple albums a year, including no fewer than four in 2024; among these was a recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra.

Järvi was born on December 30, 1962, in Tallinn, Estonia. He began his studies in conducting and percussion at the Tallinn School of Music. When he was 17, his father moved the family to the U.S., and Paavo entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his instructors in conducting were Otto-Werner Mueller and Max Rudolf. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, he studied with Leonard Bernstein. Järvi's abilities quickly manifested themselves and led to guest engagements with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Berlin Philharmonic, among many others. While bearing the family name may have gotten him a hearing, Paavo Järvi's own brilliance prevailed in shaping scores and drawing quality performances from the widely diverse orchestras he faced. He was engaged as principal guest conductor by the Stockholm Philharmonic and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and earned praise for how he filled both posts. With these groups, Järvi established himself as a presence in the recording studio, amassing an enviable collection of worldwide reviews for both his live performances and recordings.

In September 2001, Järvi became the 12th music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, succeeding Jesús López-Cobos. His debut in that post was preceded by a release on Telarc of the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Järvi of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the Love Music from Roméo et Juliet. Järvi has enjoyed a longtime association with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and has led the group on several recordings, including an album of orchestral works by Arvo Pärt, as well as Sibelius' solitary opera The Maiden in the Tower. Järvi and the Estonian National Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2004 for a recording of Sibelius' cantatas. Among the Estonians championed by Järvi are Erkki-Sven Tüür, Udo Kasemets, and Eduard Tubin, together with the better-known Pärt.

In 2004, Järvi became the artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, a position he still held as of the mid-2020s. Järvi served as the principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2006 until 2014, becoming the orchestra's conductor laureate. In 2010, he also took on the role of music director for the Orchestre de Paris, where he served until 2016. Järvi continued his post with the Cincinnati Symphony until 2011, when he was named the orchestra's music director laureate. That year, he founded the Estonian Festival Orchestra as the Pärnu Music Festival's resident orchestra; he has served as its artistic director since its founding.

Järvi was named a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012, and in 2015, he won a Sibelius Award and was named Artist of the Year by the Diapason and Gramophone magazines. He was the chief conductor of the Tokyo-based NHK Symphony Orchestra from 2015 until 2022, transitioning to the role of honorary conductor. In 2019, Järvi became the chief conductor of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. After three seasons, his contract was extended through the 2028-2029 season.

A prolific recording artist with all of his groups, Järvi's releases include orchestral works by Stenhammar, Sibelius' Kullervo and Lemminkäinen Suite, works by Bernstein, an album of cello concertos with Truls Mørk, and an album devoted to orchestral works by Lepo Sumera. Known for issuing multiple albums yearly, Järvi was heard on recordings with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Pelléas et Mélisande: Schoenberg, Fauré), the Estonian Festival Orchestra (Jüri Reinvere: Ship of Fools), and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra (Mendelssohn: Symphonies and Bruckner: Symphony No. 9) in 2024. ~ Erik Eriksson & Keith Finke

Although it does not have the long history of other European orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris has attracted top talent and played a major role in the cultural life of the French capital since its founding in 1967. The orchestra also has an associated choir, the Chœur de l'Orchestre de Paris, that was established in 1976 and has been highly regarded. The Orchestre de Paris was founded after the demise of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, which dated back to 1828 but had encountered financial difficulties. One of that group's former conductors, Charles Munch, held the auditions for the new orchestra and employed 50 members of the older group; the majority of its members, however, were new, and the orchestra owed its high quality from the start to the stature of Munch, who died in 1968 and was succeeded, as musical advisor rather than as permanent music director, by Herbert von Karajan. Concerts during the orchestra's first several years of existence featured top guest soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich. The following music directors were of uniformly prestigious stature, including Georg Solti (1972-1975), Daniel Barenboim (1975-1989), Semyon Bychkov (1989-1998), Christoph von Dohnányi (1998-2000, another artistic advisor), Christoph Eschenbach (2000-2010), Paavo Järvi (2010-2016), and Daniel Harding (2016-2019). Principal guest conductor since 2016 has been Thomas Hengelbrock. The orchestra's concert life has been centered in Paris, but its headquarters have moved several times over its comparatively short existence. The orchestra's concerts took place for many years at the venerable Salle Pleyel hall, which was sold in 1998 and finally mothballed in 2002. For several years the orchestra moved among the Théâtre du Chatelet, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, and, briefly, the renovated Salle Pleyel. In 2015 the orchestra moved into the new Philharmonie de Paris and has become its resident ensemble. The Orchestre de Paris has had a long recording career, including a 1982 recording of Ravel's Boléro that made the pop charts in the Netherlands. The group has recorded mostly for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Erato, Warner Classics, and Harmonia Mundi, for which it participated in a recording of Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat in 2018. ~ James Manheim