BIOGRAPHY

NEW TALENT !
First prize winner of the 8th Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition (2021) and laureate of the 5th Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition (2022), he is today one of the most talented Northern conductors of the young generation.

Born in Estonia, Henri Christofer Aavik began conducting at the age of 14. He studied with Jorma Pamula at the Sibelius Academy in Finland, before moving on to the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar (under the tutelage of Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik) and the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2022, he took part in the national program of the Amsterdam and The Hague conservatories, attending prestigious masterclasses with Daniele Gatti, Luciano Acocella, Paavo Järvi, Pavel Baleff, Bruno Weil, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Johannes Gustavsson, and modern music workshops with Christof Löser, Steffen Schleiermacher, Rüdiger Bohn and Zsolt Nagy.
In the 2022/23 season Aavik makes his debuts with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Israel Camerata Jerusalem as well as Bergische Symphoniker, and conducts ballet performances of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” at the Estonian National Opera, where he has appeared as a regular guest since 2020.
Henri Christofer Aavik is one of the most talented of the younger generation of Nordic conductors, and already boasts a wealth of experience. He has assisted numerous renowned conductors and conducted over 70 ensembles, including the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, the Latvian, Göttingen and Bergische National Symphony Orchestras, the Jena, Monte Carlo and Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestras, the Pärnu City Orchestra and the Estonian Sinfonietta… In 2021 Aavik founded a project-based orchestra in his home country with the aim of uniting and encouraging the rising generation of Estonian classical talents currently studying in various countries all around Europe and introducing them to a wider audience. Aavik has worked as an assistant to numerous renowned conductors such as Jac van Steen, Antony Hermus, Anja Bihlmaier, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, and Jun Märkl. In May 2023 he assisted Jonathan Darlington with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century as part of the Concertgebouw’s Beethoven Festival and led the orchestra in their educational concerts. In May 2023, he assists Jonathan Darlington at the Concertgebouw’s Beethoven Festival, where he conducts the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century’s educational concerts. In 2024, he is appointed Principal Conductor of the Pärnu City Orchestra (Estonia).

In the 2023/24 season, Henri Christofer Aavik makes his debut with the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the Estonian National Orchestra, and is invited by The Hague Residence Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. On the opera front, he is musical director of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” in a production initiated by the famous singer Ain Anger. He also conducts performances of Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” at the Estonian National Opera, where he has been a regular guest since 2020.

PRESS QUOTES

“Here is a pure product of the Nordic school (…) in the tradition of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck and Klaus Mäkelä. At the age of 27, this young Estonian already has everything it takes to make a successful career: an amazing ear, a precise baton, an arm that never wavers in vain but always in good use, letting the orchestra suggest and then better disposing of it through adjustments made with a flick of the wrist, without unnecessary demonstration. »
Tristan Labouret –Bachtrack