Mariss Jansons, son of conductor Arvid Jansons, was born in Riga in 1943. He studied violin, piano, and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory, completing his education as a student of Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and of Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he won the Karajan Competition in Berlin and began his close partnership with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, first as an assistant to Yevgeny Mravinsky and then as a permanent conductor. From 1979 to 2000 Jansons served as Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Under his tenure, the orchestra earned international acclaim and toured the leading concert halls around the world. From 1997 to 2004 he was Principal Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in the 2003-04 season he took over leadership of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; he began his tenure as head of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 2004-05 season. Jansons has guest conducted such ensembles as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics (leading the latter’s 2006 and 2012 New Year’s concerts); he has likewise conducted the finest orchestras of the United States and elsewhere in Europe. His discography comprises many prize-winning recordings, including his Grammy-winning account of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13. Mariss Jansons is an honorary member of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna and of the Royal Academy of Music in London; the Berlin Philharmonic has honored him with the Bülow Medal, the City of Vienna with the Golden Medal of Honor, and the State of Austria with the Honorary Cross for Science and Arts. In 2006 he was named Artist of the Year by Cannes MIDEM, and he received the Echo Klassik Award in 2007 and 2008. The magazine Opernwelt named him Conductor of the Year for his performances of Eugene Onegin in Amsterdam.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 20 April 1992 with the London Symphony Orchestra in works by Weber and Strauss, as well as Mahler’s First Symphony.
May 2012