Vello Pähn

Vello Pähn acted as the KSO Principal Conductor in 2003-2006.

Vello Pähn graduated from Tallinn State Conservatory in 1981, having studied conducting with Roman Matsov and continued his studies at St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1981–1986 with Arvīds and Maris Jansons. In 1982–1984 he was engaged at the Estonian National Opera. Since autumn 2012 he is the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Estonian National Opera. He has conducted numerous operas, including Bizet’s “Carmen”, Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, Verdi’s “La traviata”, Mussorgsky’s “Khovanshchina”, Donizetti’s “L’elisir d’amore”, Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”, Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer”, Gounod’s “Faust”, etc, and ballets, such as Prokofiev’s “Cinderella”, Neumeier’s “Othello” to the music of Pärt, Schnittke, Vasconcelos et al, and “Die Kameliendame” to the music of Chopin, Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”, etc. Since 1988 he has conducted at Opera National de Paris, since 1992 at Hamburg State Opera, since 1999 at Dresden Semperoper and since 2000 at Staatsoper Berlin and has worked with the legendary dancers and choreographers Rudolf Nureyev, John Neumeier and Maurice Bejart, etc. In addition to the aforementioned, he has been a guest conductor at Staatstheater Stuttgart, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Wiener Staatsoper, Gothenburg Opera, Leipzig Opera, Dresden Semperoper and many others. Vello Pähn has conducted various orchestras in Italy, France, Russia, Japan, USA, Greece, Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Spain, etc. At the Estonian National Opera, Vello Pähn has been the music director for the following operas and ballets: Gounod’s “Faust” (2012), Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier” (2012, concert performance) and “Arabella” (2015, first time in Estonia, concert performance ), Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” (2013), Tõnu Kõrvits’ “Butterfly” (2013, world premiere), Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” (2013, concert performance), Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Snegurochka” (2014, first time in Estonia, concert performance), Gianluca Schiavoni’s “Medea” (2014, world premiere), Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” (2014), John Cranko’s “Onegin” (2015, first time in Estonia), Hindemith’s Cardillac” (2015, first time in Estonia), Tubin’s “The Goblin” (2015), Verdi’s “Aida” (2016), Wagner’s “Der fliegende Holländer” (2016) and Adam’s “Giselle” (2017). Vello Pähn is the winner of the Annual Estonian Theatre Award 2016 for the interpretation of Hindemith’s “Cardillac” and Strauss’ “Arabella” on a high artistic level and the Estonian Music Council Interpretation Prize 2016.