Vello Pähn

The Estonian-born conductor Vello Pähn began his studies at the Tallinn Conservatory and then in St. Petersburg under Maestro Mariss Jansons. In the early stages of his career, Vello Pähn’s collaboration with the legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev and the choreographer John Neumeier led to invitations from the world’s leading theatres and ballet companies. His command of the standard ballet repertoire, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Onegin made him a popular guest at the Paris, Hamburg, Vienna and Berlin opera houses for over two and half decades. Last season, Maestro Pähn conducted in Paris the ballet productions of La Nuit Transfigurée and Le Sacre du Printemps and in this season Jewels choreographed by George Balanchine.

From 2012 to 2019 Vello Pähn was the chief conductor and Artistic Director of the Estonian National Opera in Tallinn. His premieres there included Gounod's Faust and Romeo et Juliette, Wagner's Tannhäuser and The Flying Dutchman, Cardillac (Hindemith), Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Arabella (Strauss), Aida (Verdi) and Bernstein’s Candide among others.

Nowadays Vello Pähn is equally in demand as an opera and ballet conductor, he has guested at the Berlin State Opera with Donizetti’s L’Eisir d’Amore and at the Paris Opera in Robert Wilson’s production of Madama Butterfly among others. He made his debut at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland with The Flying Dutchman and returned there with Gounod's Faust. In Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Opera, he first conducted Swan Lake and returned soon with the opera Carmen and at the latest with La bohème.

In addition to France and Scandinavia, Maestro Pähn has been frequently invited to many major German opera houses, including the Dresden Semperoper, Berlin and Hamburg State Operas, Stuttgart and Leipzig opera houses and of course not excluding other European major opera houses, such as the Vienna State Opera and La Scala in Milan.

Vello Pähn’s recent opera engagements include Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco in Tallinn and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges and Roméo et Juliette in Paris. He will also return to Copenhagen with ballets Swan Lake and Giant Steps and to Paris with Le Sacre de Printemps and Raymonda. In May 2022 he returned to Naples with Romeo and Julia of Sergey Prokofiev and in season 2023/24 he will return to Copenhagen, Oslo, Paris and Amsterdam. In January 2024 he will make his house debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in ballet Onegin.