Production Manager (m/w/d) Konzerttourneen und Orchester

Für das Berliner Büro des Baltic Sea Philharmonic und seines Trägervereins Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation e.V. suchen wir zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt einen Production Manager (m/w/d) in Voll- oder Teilzeit (mind. 32 Std/Woche)), in Festanstellung oder auf Honorarbasis für die 2023 anstehenden Konzerttourneen. Diese Stelle ist vorerst auf ein Jahr befristet, eine Verlängerung wird angestrebt.

Deine Aufgaben:

Organisation und Durchführung der künstlerischen Projekte des Baltic Sea Philharmonic

• Organisation der Tour-Planung des Orchesters, u.a.: Einladungsmanagement und Orchesterdisposition, Visaangelegenheiten und Instrumentenpässe
• Recherche und Anmietung von Probenräumen sowie Leihinstrumenten
• Reiseorganisation und Koordination, Hotelbuchungen und Logistik
• Erstellung von detaillierten Zeit- und Ablaufplänen für Musiker*innen und Begleitpersonen
• Betreuung der Touren
• Künstler:innenbetreuung (Dirigent, Solist*innen, Orchestermusiker*innen, Dozent*innen)
• Anleitung und Koordination von Bühnen- und Technikpersonal bei Bühnenaufbau und Konzert
• Administrative Vor- und Nachbereitung der Projekte
• Unterstützung bei Notenbereitstellung und -verwaltung 

Dein Profil:

• Absolvent:in der Musik-, Kulturwissenschaft oder -management, Eventmanagement oder eines vergleichbaren Faches mit Schwerpunkt auf Projektmanagement
• Erste Arbeitserfahrung in der Musikbranche, z.B. Agentur, Orchester, Festival, Spiel-/Veranstaltungsstätte, Agentur und vergleichbare Erfahrungen im Bereich Events
• Verhandlungssichere Sprachkenntnisse in Deutsch und Englisch in Wort und Schrift; weitere Fremdsprache(n), insbesondere aus der Ostseeregion, von Vorteil
• Organisationstalent: eigenständiges, genaues Arbeiten und Prioritätensetzung, Verantwortungsbewusstsein
• Zuverlässigkeit, Teamfähigkeit und Bereitschaft zu flexiblen Arbeitszeiten
• Sicherer Umgang mit den gängigen MS-Office-Programmen
• Führerschein Klasse B und Fahrpraxis
• Notenkenntnisse und eigene Orchestererfahrung wünschenswert

Was Dich erwartet:

• Werde Teil eines ungewöhnlichen Kulturprojektes und gestalte die Festival- und Konzerttouren eines internationalen Orchesters durch Deutschland und Europa
• Mitgestaltung hochkarätiger Konzerterlebnisse
• Freundliche Arbeitsatmosphäre in einem kleinen, motivierten Team: Dabei arbeitest Du eng mit dem Produktionsteam, dem Music Director und Executive Director sowie Musiker:innen der Ostseeregion, und Kooperationspartner:innen des Orchesters zusammen.
• Flexible Arbeitszeiten im Berliner Büro in Mitte, teilweise im Homeoffice/Remote möglich bei einer regelmäßigen Arbeitszeit nach Absprache zwischen 32 bis 40 Stunden pro Woche (auf Tournee wird die Anwesenheit in Vollzeit vorausgesetzt)

Über uns:

Das Baltic Sea Philharmonic ist ein internationales Orchester, das junge Musiker*innen im Alter von 18 bis 30 Jahren aus dem gesamten Ostseeraum, von Norwegen bis Russland zusammenbringt und unter der Leitung von Kristjan Järvi einzigartige Konzerterlebnisse kreiert. Seit seiner Gründung 2008 präsentiert das Baltic Sea Philharmonic sein musikalisches Repertoire auf weltweiten Konzerttourneen. Weitere Informationen zum Baltic Sea Philharmonic und den für 2023 geplanten Touren und Musikprojekten findest Du unter www.baltic-sea-philharmonic.eu sowie auf Facebook, Instagram oder YouTube.

Unsere Stelle passt zu Dir? Dann freuen wir uns auf Deine Bewerbung mit Anschreiben, Lebenslauf, Referenzen und Gehaltsvorstellungen per E-Mail an Rita Sosedow (contact@bmef.eu) bis zum 27. März 2023.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi will bring their renowned programme ‘Midnight Sun’ to Germany in the summer of 2023. The new tour, which takes its name from the Nordic phenomenon of the never-setting midnight sun, will start on 21 June at the Berlin Philharmonie, then continue to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg on 22 June and conclude at the Kissinger Sommer on 23 June. The threese concerts will transport audiences into the unique world of a youthful, international group of forward-thinking musicians and their pioneering conductor. Concert-goers will experience a stimulating musical journey with no breaks or intermission, as the performers play from memory without the use of music stands. The musicians’ kinetic energy on stage and their dynamic engagement with each other and their conductor further enhance the presentation.

This outstanding summer event brings together works by Tubin, Rääts, Kristjan Järvi and the orchestra’s harpist Liis Jürgens. The highlight of the evening will be the 1945 version of Stravinsky’s classic The Firebird. It is the centrepiece of a programme full of fresh and invigorating interpretations, all performed in inimitable Baltic Sea Philharmonic style.

Tickets for the Berlin concert, held in collaboration with the Young Euro Classic international music festival in Berlin, are available from 7 March here. Tickets for the Elbphilharmonie concert go on sale from the same date here. The ‘Midnight Sun’ tour is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Immerse yourself in Nordic midsummer nights

The immersive sound spectacle of ‘Midnight Sun’ brings the magical atmosphere of a Nordic midsummer to Berlin, Hamburg and Bad Kissingen, inspired by the phenomenon of the never-setting midnight sun in the summer months above the Arctic Circle. After an uplifting introduction with Kristjan Järvi’s Ascending Swans, which transports the audience from the hot Central European summer nights to the cool of the far North, the orchestra and conductor move into far more epic and exotic realms with Stravinsky. The Firebird was the first full-length work that the Baltic Sea Philharmonic performed completely by heart  – the orchestra’s world-premiere memorised performance of the Stravinsky classic took place in 2017 on the Swedish island of Gotland on the orchestra’s ‘Baltic Folk’ tour. The longing for transformation and renewal so powerfully expressed in The Firebird has since been an important theme for the orchestra as it takes musical performance to new dimensions. After selections from Jaan Rääts’ Concerto for Chamber Orchestra No. 1, the ‘Midnight Sun’ programme continues to the southeast of Estonia and the Seto region with the Setu Tants by Estonian master Eduard Tubin. The Dream of Tabu-Tabu by Baltic Sea Philharmonic harpist Liis Jürgens – a powerful, cinematic declaration of freedom of expression and against totalitarianism and violence – precedes the evening’s closing piece, Kristjan Järvi’s Midnight Sun.

Even more ‘Midnight Sun’ in Germany and Italy

Later in 2023 the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Midnight Sun’ programme undergoes another transformation with more concerts in Germany and Italy. The orchestra and Kristjan Järvi will open the Usedom Music Festival on 16 September before touring Italy from 20– 23 September, with visits to the Merano Music Festival (20 September), the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (21 September) and the Teatro Amintore Galli in Rimini (22 September).

Please check our concert schedule for all concerts in 2023.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s new Nutcracker album for Sony Classical, which the orchestra recorded completely from memory, will be released on 2 December. Kristjan Järvi conducts his own arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s final ballet as a Dramatic Symphony. This fresh and imaginative reworking revitalises Nutcracker’s most popular dances and lets the brilliance and inventiveness of the ballet’s less familiar numbers shine through. The musicians of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic recorded this new version of Nutcracker entirely by heart in Tallinn in September 2022, at the end of their ‘Meresillad’ tour of Germany and Estonia. As well as releasing the complete album on 2 December, Sony will release two singles and one focus track showcasing celebrated scenes from the ballet – ‘Coffee: Arabian Dance’ (4 November), ‘Evergreen Forest in Winter’ (18 November) and ‘Overture’ (2 December).

From ballet to Dramatic Symphony
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s new Nutcracker joins Järvi’s previous Tchaikovsky releases on Sony – The Snow Maiden, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty – in revitalising great theatrical pieces for contemporary audiences. Järvi says: ‘There is a tendency today to see classical music as some kind of precious relic that has to be treated with white gloves, almost with an archaeologist’s care, and the idea of even thinking about arranging a piece is somehow bad. But making arrangements, especially of theatre music, used to be much more prevalent, with composers playing around with new music and popularising it, as a way of making it part of mainstream culture.’ With his Nutcracker arrangement, Järvi wanted to give some of Tchaikovsky’s most well-known numbers a context that shows there is more great music in this celebrated ballet.  ‘When creating this Dramatic Symphony version, I didn’t make musical choices according to the popularity of certain movements. Instead my choices were based on what material and movements I thought would be most interesting and riveting to listen to in sequence. I wanted music that would hold the listener’s attention throughout, so I reorchestrated and rewrote some elements, and created new transitions’, he continues.

Recording Nutcracker from memory
The Estonian Public Broadcasting Studio 1 in Tallinn where Nutcracker was recorded was set up to recreate the atmosphere of the orchestra’s celebrated live concerts, in which the musicians play the entire programme from memory and create a unique energy. Subtle stage lighting, a smoke machine, decorations and lounge furniture gave the studio a club concert vibe. With no music stands, the musicians were mostly standing up, spread out and not in their sections, free to move and even dance to the music. Gertrud Leopard, an Estonian percussionist in the orchestra who was familiar with the studio in Tallinn, having recorded there twice before, says: ‘Recording from memory is a unique experience for me. It means I can focus more on the music, without having to concentrate on the score. With the special atmosphere in the studio, it really feels like we are performing and we are building a unique connection within the orchestra.’

That connection extends to the creative exchange with conductor Kristjan Järvi. Blessed with the studio time to allow experiments with the smallest of details in his arrangement, Järvi frequently invited the musicians to join him in the sound engineer’s booth to listen back to takes and talk about adjustments in interpretation, tempo or dynamics. Järvi says: ‘The beauty of working with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic is that we have the time to experiment, to try out changes to what’s written and see if they improve the musical results. Normally with an orchestra this is simply not possible because everybody’s time is so precious. In this sense, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic is truly an ensemble of co-creators, as opposed to an ensemble of musical executioners.’

A growing Sony Classical discography
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s new Nutcracker album joins the orchestra’s burgeoning discography on Sony Classical. The orchestra and Kristjan Järvi’s first recording for the label was The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure, an arrangement for orchestra of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (2016). An album of Stravinsky and Glass violin concertos (2020) featured the young Swiss violinist David Nebel in his debut concerto recording, with Järvi conducting the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s neoclassical Violin Concerto in D major and the London Symphony Orchestra in Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Gramophone praised Nebel’s interpretation of the Stravinsky and the energetic playing of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, with the magazine’s reviewer concluding: ‘This is a tremendously impressive debut album, and the Stravinsky performance is among the very best.’ The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty arranged by Järvi as a Dramatic Symphony (2020) received rave reviews in Germany and Sweden and was nominated for an OPUS Klassik award in 2021.

Listen to the first single ‘Coffee: Arabian Dance’ here

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi received a rapturous reception at all three concerts on their ‘Meresillad’ tour of Germany and Estonia (15–21 September). Playing to sold-out houses in Eisenach, Peenemünde and Tallinn, the orchestra thrilled a combined audience of around 2,600 concert-goers with a programme that featured a celebration of Estonian music (‘Meresillad’ means ‘sea bridges’ in Estonian) and a new Dramatic Symphony arrangement by Kristjan Järvi of Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Nutcracker ballet. The Baltic Sea Philharmonic performed the complete 90-minute ‘Meresillad’ programme from memory, as one uninterrupted flow of music, with no intermission. Atmospheric lighting design and bespoke concert outfits highlighted the musical storytelling approach of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and enhanced the visual spectacle of the musicians playing, moving, dancing, and even at times singing on stage.

The orchestra, travelling as an ensemble of 67 musicians, began the ‘Meresillad’ tour on 15 September in the Thuringian town of Eisenach, birthplace of J.S. Bach. Ahead of its debut at the Landestheater Eisenach in front of an audience of 500 concert-goers, the orchestra gave a pop-up concert for 250 pupils at the town’s Geschwister-Scholl-Schule. On 17 September the Baltic Sea Philharmonic opened the Usedom Music Festival, wowing 1,200 concert-goers in Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, the orchestra’s spiritual home and the place where it was founded in 2008. For the final ‘Meresillad’ concert, the musicians journeyed to Tallinn, Kristjan Järvi’s birthplace and home city, where they performed for an audience of 900 at the Estonia Concert Hall on 21 September.

Estonian composers past and present, and a beloved ballet reimagined
In a programme dedicated to Estonia, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic featured works by two of the country’s most celebrated 20th-century composers in the shape of Jan Rääts’ Concerto for Chamber Orchestra No. 1 (first movement) and Eduard Tubin’s ‘Setu Tants’ from his Estonian Dance Suite. The orchestra opened with Kristjan Järvi’s Sibelius-inspired Ascending Swans and closed the programme in rousing style with another contemporary Estonian work, Tabu-tabu by Liis Jürgens, a harpist in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. Composed especially for the orchestra, and commissioned by the Baltic Sea Music Education Foundation, Tabu-tabu is an example of the orchestra empowering its musicians as creators, collaborators and innovators. The piece was composed at the beginning of this year during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and at the same time recalls the Cold War period in Estonia. Jürgens says: ‘I chose “Tabu”, the Polynesian word for things that must not be spoken about, because there was a time in Estonia when people were not allowed to speak freely, when things that were important to people, for example Christianity or Estonian identity, were shrouded in silence. There were simply many taboos.’ With its colourful percussion and driving rhythms, and with conductor Kristjan Järvi marshalling the musicians and the audience with a shaman drum in his hand,  Tabu-tabu was enthusiastically received at all three concerts. In Tallinn the piece was performed with special guest Meister Jaan playing the jaw harp.

Alongside the Estonian works on the ‘Meresillad’ programme was Kristjan Järvi’s new Dramatic Symphony version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, the great Russian composer’s final ballet which has long been a beloved seasonal spectacle. As with his previous reworkings of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, Järvi’s arrangement showcases all the quintessential colour and wonder of Tchaikovsky’s theatre music. The Nutcracker Dramatic Symphony received its world premiere in Eisenach and brought standing ovations for the orchestra even during the concert. Reviewing the Usedom Music Festival performance for the Ostsee Zeitung, Cornelia Meerkatz described Järvi’s Nutcracker reworking as ‘a Baltic Sea Philharmonic version of this impeccable masterpiece. Järvi took on the role of the Nutcracker or Mouse King himself, leaping in the air or crouching down. And from the orchestra there was pure joy of playing. The musicians danced, laughed and even sang. Every note was a feast for the ears.’

See performance shots and behind-the-scenes photos from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Meresillad’ tour on Facebook and Instagram

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic made a thrilling debut at the Birgitta Festival, Estonia’s annual music theatre festival, on 12 August. The orchestra and its conductor Kristjan Järvi presented their unique take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, performing Järvi’s own arrangement of Sibelius’s masterful theatre music alongside other works by Sibelius, Järvi and Baltic Sea Philharmonic harpist Liis Jürgens. The orchestra performed the entire programme from memory and without intermission. With no music stands on stage, the musicians were free to move and interact with each other, and the dynamic choreography, with players changing places, moving across the stage and among the audience, dancing and play-fighting, all underscored the drama of Shakespeare’s play. The immersive performance also featured atmospheric lighting and sound design, as well as original projection art. The audio-visual concept was done by Sunbeam Productions.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic collaborated in The Tempest with soloist Mari Meentalo on the Estonian bagpipes. She also had a striking role in Kristjan Järvi’s Midnight Sun and in addition she played the mouth harp in Jürgens’ The Dream of Tabu-tabu. The orchestra’s programme included another celebrated work by Sibelius in the shape of his 1895 tone poem The Swan of Tuonela from The Lemminkaïnen Suite, and five other pieces by Kristjan Järvi – Life Lives Ethereal, Frozen Tears, Runic Prayer, Aurora and Ascending Swans, which is based on the Song of Praise from Sibelius’s Swanwhite Suite.

The Birgitta Festival concert, which took place in the ruins of the 15th-century Pirita convent in Tallinn, was sold out, with around 850 people in the audience. It came a month after the Baltic Sea Philharmonic made a memorable debut at Estonia’s Pärnu Music Festival, performing four concerts in as many days. In a 2022 season focused on Estonia, the orchestra will return to Tallinn next month as part of its ‘Meresillad’ tour of Germany and Estonia (15–21 September). This tour, the Estonian language title of which translates as ‘sea bridges’, will celebrate Estonia and also the deep connections between the countries of the Baltic Sea region. The programme includes music by Estonian composers past and present, with works by Eduard Tubin (1905–1982), Jaan Rääts (1932–2020) and Liis Jürgens. It also features Kristjan Järvi’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker as a Dramatic Symphony, a work which completes Järvi’s trilogy of adaptations of the Russian composer’s ballets, after Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. The ‘Meresillad’ tour will take the orchestra to Eisenach (15 September) and the Usedom Music Festival (17 September) before the tour concludes in Tallinn on 21 September with a concert at the Estonia Concert Hall.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic made a memorable debut at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia this month, performing four concerts in as many days. This year’s 12th edition of the festival (13–22 July) in the seaside resort town of Pärnu is celebrating the 85th birthday of Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi, who conducted the festival’s opening concert. The Järvi family have been reunited at the Pärnu Music Festival, with Paavo Järvi conducting the Estonian Festival Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi conducting the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. In addition to performing a spectacular ‘Nordic Amazonia’ concert on 15 July, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic gave three masterclass concerts in Laulasmaa, Tallinn and Pärnu, with conducting students from the Järvi Academy.

Big birthdays and budding conductors
The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Nordic Amazonia’ concert experience at the sold-out Pärnu Concert Hall was a double celebration, marking both the 85th birthday of American minimalist Philip Glass and the 50th birthday of Kristjan Järvi, the orchestra’s Founding Conductor and Artistic Director. Kristjan conducted the ensemble of 49 musicians in a programme comprising Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia and pieces by Kristjan from his 2020 album Nordic Escapes, including Nebula, Aurora and In Horizons. The orchestra was joined by Swiss violinist David Nebel, and the musicians performed the music in signature Baltic Sea Philharmonic style – completely from memory, and as a single continuous flow of music with no intermission. Atmospheric lighting, sound design and choreography created an electrifying concert experience, with the musicians moving and dancing on stage and finally exiting the hall still dancing amid standing ovations from the excited audience. The concert was livestreamed and is available to watch on Pärnu Music Festival TV.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic also had an important role at the Pärnu Music Festival supporting the education of young musicians selected for the Järvi Academy, which is an inseparable part of the festival. The international group of ten students on this year’s Järvi Academy conducting course had coaching sessions with Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kristjan Järvi and Leonid Grin, and took part in three Masterclass Concerts with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. The first of these was at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa on 12 July, and featured music by the renowned Estonian composer. Two more masterclass concerts with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic took place in Tallinn (12 July) and Pärnu (14 July), both featuring music by Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartók. All three concerts were livestreamed.

Returning to Estonia in August and September
Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic will be back in Tallinn on 12 August for the orchestra’s debut at the Birgitta Festival, a music theatre festival that was first held in 2005. At an open-air concert in the historic ruins of the Pirita Convent, the orchestra will perform Kristjan’s suite from Sibelius’s masterful theatre music for The Tempest by William Shakespeare. In a performance co-created with the orchestra members, the musicians will be performing both music and text, and the concert will be accompanied by special lighting and sound design. As well as the music from The Tempest, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic will also perform pieces by Kristjan, including Midnight Sun, Aurora and Frozen Tears.

Tallinn is also the final destination on the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Meresillad’ tour of Germany and Estonia (15–21 September). The tour, the Estonian language title of which translates as ‘sea bridges’, celebrates Estonia, and the tour programme includes music by Estonian composers past and present, with works by Eduard Tubin (1905–1982) and Jaan Rääts (1932–2020) as well as Liis Jürgens, who is a harpist in the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. The programme will also feature Kristjan Järvi’s arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker as a Dramatic Symphony. This completes his trilogy of reworkings of the Russian composer’s ballets, after Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. The ‘Meresillad’ tour will conclude in Tallinn on 21 September with a concert at the Estonia Concert Hall.

Watch the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s ‘Nordic Amazonia’ concert and all three Järvi Academy concerts now on Pärnu Music Festival TV

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic will make its debut at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia in July. This year’s festival in the seaside resort town of Pärnu is celebrating the 85th birthday of Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi, who will conduct the opening concert of the festival. The Järvi family will be reunited at the festival, as Paavo Järvi conducts the Estonian Festival Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic give four concerts in as many days. Both Järvi brothers also have significant birthdays this year, with Kristjan turning 50 in June and Paavo turning 60 in December.

Celebration and education

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic will be supporting the education of young musicians selected for the Järvi Academy, which is an inseparable part of the Pärnu Music Festival. Students on this year’s Järvi Academy Conducting course will have coaching sessions with Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Kristjan Järvi and Leonid Grin, and will take part in three Masterclass Concerts with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. The first of these is at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa on 12 July, and will feature music by the renowned Estonian composer. Two more masterclass concerts with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic will take place in Tallinn (12 July) and Pärnu (14 July), both featuring music by Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartók.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s main festival concert with Kristjan Järvi in Pärnu on 15 July has the theme ‘Nordic Amazonia’ and will feature Aguas da Amazonia by Philip Glass and pieces by Kristjan Järvi from his album Nordic Escapes, which was released on BMG/Modern Recordings in 2020 including Aurora and Nebula. The orchestra will be joined by Swiss violinist David Nebel, who recorded both Aurora and Nebula for the Nordic Escapes album. The ‘Nordic Amazonia’ concert will be performed in signature Baltic Sea Philharmonic style, completely from memory, and as one flow of music with no breaks or interval. The concert will celebrate the 85th birthday (in January this year) of Philip Glass and the 50th birthday of Kristjan Järvi.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic sends its warmest congratulations to Founding Conductor and Music Director Kristjan Järvi as he turns 50 on 13 June. It is almost exactly 14 years since Kristjan conducted the orchestra’s first ever concert, at the Great Guild in Riga on 4 June 2008, and from that moment onwards he has shaped the ensemble’s reputation as a powerful engine of innovation, creative freedom and risk-taking on the international orchestral scene. Through the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, a generation of musicians has been inspired to step out of their comfort zone and embrace freedom and fearlessness, both in their playing and as a wider creative mindset. Kristjan has instilled in the orchestra musicians a collective spirit of self-discovery, encouraging their passion and potential in areas such as memorisation, digital production and music creation.

Kristjan has shown the members of the orchestra, and audiences around the world, that on the musical stage anything is possible, from performing entire concert programmes from memory to using cutting-edge lighting design and digital soundscapes to transform the concert experience. And as a recording artist he is as prolific and eclectic at the age of 50 as he ever has been, releasing albums of Tchaikovsky and Max Richter with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, mixing and producing the orchestra’s ‘Musical Chain’ series of singles and music videos, releasing the first album of his original compositions, and establishing his own record label, all in the last two years.

With his individual and eclectic programming, Kristjan has honoured the musical culture of the Baltic Sea region and represented the multinational membership of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. He has also built bridges between the old and the new, whether that’s reimagining classic Tchaikovsky ballets for the 21st century, or juxtaposing Baroque masterpieces with contemporary Minimalism, or turning an orchestra into a giant rock band, as when the Baltic Sea Philharmonic played with the indie group Bastille at the Elbphilharmonie.

From all musicians and the entire team at the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, happy birthday Kristjan!

With two chamber music concerts in Wolgast and in the Baltic Sea resort Heringsdorf, musicians of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic ended the exclusive European residency of the US orchestra at the Usedom Music Festival. The world-renowned US orchestra and its music director Jaap van Zweden gave three concerts in Peenemünde on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom from 20–22 May. The opening concert of the residency featured twelve players from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, who performed ‘Side by Side’ with the New York Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9. Musicians from both orchestras – five from the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and six from the New York Philharmonic – also came together for two chamber music concerts on 23 and 24 May performing Barber’s Summer Music and Brahms’s String Sextet No. 2.

A unique collaboration in a perfect setting
The programme for these chamber music concerts was devised by the New York Philharmonic and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in collaboration. The playful, dreamy Summer Music by American composer Samuel Barber, in which the instruments intertwined imaginatively in many voices, was followed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s humorous Horn Quintet in E-flat Major KV 407. In the second part of the atmospheric concerts, the audience heard the second String Sextet by German composer Johannes Brahms, which holds a cryptogram as a reminder of Brahms’s childhood love.

For the musicians of both orchestras, the collaboration was an enriching and gratifying experience. Richard Deane, principal horn player of the New York Philharmonic, said: ‘The whole Usedom Music Festival was great fun. And there were great synergies between the musicians. The musicians of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic wanted to learn, and we also learned a lot and got to know different styles. We became friends and had a great time.’ Alexey Mikhaylenko, clarinettist and senior musician of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, was surprised by the way of playing and the convincing technical quality of the New York Philharmonic: ‘Sitting and playing inside of the NYPhil is comparable to sitting in a space craft – a perfectly organised machine, which goes forward without any delays and with visual lightness of performing.’ For Viktoria Kassel, an oboist with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, unforgettable memories are linked to the collaboration: ‘I learned so much and met so many wonderful new people and musicians, I would never want to miss this experience. I am impressed by how perfectly yet realistically the musicians of the New Yorker Philharmonic make music. It’s not about the individuals, it’s about the whole, about the music and about offering the audience a special kind of concert experience. It reminds me a lot of our own orchestra, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic – maybe that’s why the collaboration worked so well straight away.’

Playing ‘Side by Side’ with the New York Philharmonic marked the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s first performance collaboration with such an illustrious world-class orchestra. The Usedom Music Festival has been the natural host for this coming together, as the Baltic Sea Philharmonic was founded at the festival in 2008 and considers Usedom its birthplace and its home beside the Baltic Sea. Usedom also connects the two orchestras, through the late maestro Kurt Masur. The great German conductor became the first patron of the Usedom Music Festival during his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, and one of his last concerts was with the Baltic Sea Philharmonic in Peenemünde at the 2013 Usedom Music Festival. The Baltic Sea Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic were among a group of six international orchestras that co-commissioned Steve Reich’s 2018 Music for Ensemble and Orchestra; the Baltic Sea Philharmonic gave the German premiere of the piece in September 2019 at the Usedom Music Festival, and the New York Philharmonic gave the New York premiere in December 2019.

The Baltic Sea Philharmonic today releases a new single in its ‘Musical Chain’ series, Hollow in the tree. Composed by orchestra members Mintautas Kriščiūnas and Zuzanna Wąsiewicz, the track is out now on Estonian independent label nEscapes. An accompanying music video, produced and directed by another member of the orchestra, Ludwig Angerhöfer, is available to watch on the orchestra’s social media channels. An engaging fusion of electronic textures and orchestral soundscapes, the music for Hollow in the tree was recorded by the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and Kristjan Järvi on the island of Usedom in September 2021. Further tracks written and produced by Baltic Sea Philharmonic musicians as part of the ‘Producers Edition’, an expansion of the ‘Musical Chain’ series, will be released on nEscapes later in 2022 with accompanying music videos.

Empowering creativity and collaboration

The ‘Musical Chain’ series of collaborative music videos launched in July 2020 as a way of bringing Baltic Sea Philharmonic musicians together virtually during the pandemic lockdowns and connecting them with other artists and video producers. In the summer of 2021 the project was extended with the ‘Producers Edition’, which invited members of the orchestra to create their own music and videos, and gave them the opportunity to showcase their talents as composers, producers, scriptwriters, sound engineers and videographers. After submitting ideas for music and video projects, selected musicians collaborated in small teams to compose and produce their tracks and bring their stories alive on video. At a dedicated recording session on Usedom, the composers worked with Kristjan Järvi and professional sound engineers to record their creations. The musicians selected to produce and direct films for the music tracks worked under the guidance of professional videographers. Through the ‘Producers Edition’, members of the orchestra have learned new skills and tools and developed collaborative ways of working, as well as growing their entrepreneurial potential.

Behind the scenes

With Hollow in the tree, Lithuanian violist Mintautas Kriščiūnas and Polish harpist Zuzanna Wąsiewicz have created a compelling union of electronic music, layered acoustic harp and the sound of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic. They describe the piece as reflecting the human condition in an ever-changing modern world in which nature struggles to survive in the face of mechanical and destructive human development. The conflict between these two forces comes through in the climax of the piece, but throughout the work the peace and strength of nature offers a constant flow and drive, as well as a sense of hope.

For Wąsiewicz, Hollow in the tree was a departure from composing purely acoustic music. ‘This project was the first time I had worked with electronics and effects,’ she says. ‘It’s also the first work I’ve ever had released, so I’m very excited.’ Kriščiūnas is no stranger to releasing his own music but jumped at the chance to be part of the ‘Producers Edition’. ‘I’ve learned so much already as a member of the Baltic Sea Philharmonic,’ he says. ‘It’s been a great opportunity to grow as a musician, so I had no hesitation to join this project.’

German tuba player Ludwig Angerhöfer responded to the flow and forward motion of the Hollow in the tree music with a video that captures the power of nature, and especially the energy of water, but also showcases the musicians of the orchestra. He filmed in five countries, including Latvia, where one location was Europe’s widest waterfall, and he also shot under water. He says: ‘As a tuba player, I’m used to being at the back of the orchestra, providing the fundamental bass but not always contributing throughout a piece. The “Producers Edition” was a great opportunity to create something whole myself, to step out to the front and showcase more of my abilities.’

Check out the Hollow in the tree video now on the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s YouTube channel