Arvo Volmer

Arvo Volmer studied choral and orchestral conducting from 1980 to 1985 at the Tallinn State Conservatoire with Olev Oja and Roman Matsov. He continued his studies at the Leningrad Conservatoire with Ravil Martynov and graduated in 1990. In addition, he has participated in Helmuth Rilling’s master classes in the USA.

The conductor made his professional debut with the Estonian National Opera at the age of 22 and has been associated with the company ever since. In 1989, he became an associate conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and was the musical director of the Orchestra from 1993 till 2001. In 1994–2005, he was the principal conductor and artistic director of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, he became the artistic director and principal conductor at the Estonian National Opera, where he conducted the first Estonian productions of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal and the production of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Wallenberg. In 2004–2013, he was the musical director of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. He led the Orchestra on tour to Los Angeles and to the Carnegie Hall in New York. Other outstanding projects include the highly acclaimed, five-year long Mahler Cycle and Schumann and Sibelius Festivals. In 2013–2015, he was the principal guest conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. In season 2014/2015, he became the musical director of the Haydn Orchestra. With the Orchestra, he performed at the Florence Musical May Festival, South Tyrol Festival in Toblach, and the Tyrol Festival in Erl.

Arvo Volmer has performed with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the philharmonic orchestras of the Netherlands Radio and the French Radio, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the symphony orchestras of Birmingham, São Paulo, Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Taiwan, and Gothenburg, the philharmonic orchestras of Brussels, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Macau, and St Petersburg, the French National Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Bordeaux Aquitaine National Orchestra, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Orchestra of the German Comic Opera, and the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra among others. As an opera conductor, Arvo Volmer has performed at the Bolshoi Theatre, Finnish National Opera, Norwegian Opera, Malmö Musical Theatre, Mannheim National Theatre, and the Sydney Opera.

Throughout his career, Arvo Volmer has made an extensive number of recordings, including the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius for ABC (recorded following a cycle with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) and the symphonic works of Eduard Tubin. He has also recorded the complete works of Leevi Madetoja and works by Swedish and Estonian contemporary composers.

Special Prize and the 4th place for the International Nikolay Malko Conductors Competition (1989)