Conductor Mariss Jansons (76) has passed

Dutch National Opera mourns the loss of Mariss Jansons, who passed in his home in St. Petersburg on 1 December. Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Concertgebouworkest from September 2004 until the 2014-2015 season. In this capacity, he also conducted at Dutch National Opera several times.



The Latvian conductor studied violin and orchestral conducting in St. Petersburg and continued his studies in Vienna and Salzburg with Hans Swarovsky and Herbert von Karajan. In 1973 he became assistant to Yevgeny Mravinsky with the orchestra of St. Petersburg, where his father Arvids Jansons also conducted.

From 1979 to 2000, Jansons was chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, which acquired a great international reputation under his leadership. From 1997 to 2004 Mariss Jansons was at the helm of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and since 2003, he was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. As a guest conductor with orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the major orchestras of the United States, he gave many concerts worldwide.

At Dutch National Opera, Jansons conducted 'his' Concertgebouworkest in three operas from the Russian opera repertoire: Shostakovich' Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2006), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (2011) and The Queen of Spades (2016). 

In 2011 he was named Conductor of the Year by Opernwelt for Eugene Onegin at Dutch National Opera. On 1 November 2013 he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his merits.