Biography
Risto Joost ranks among Estonia’s leading younger conductors, having performed extensively with ensembles throughout the Baltic region and farther afield while earning particular recognition for his command of demanding new scores.
Born in Tallinn on June 22, 1980, at that time within the Soviet Union, he began musical training at six and soon entered a specialized music school in the capital after his abilities became evident. He pursued studies at the Estonian Academy of Music in orchestral and choral conducting together with vocal performance as a countertenor. Graduate work followed at Vienna’s Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst and culminated in a master’s degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2008, where he worked under Jorma Panula.
His first recording appeared in 2010 on the Estonian Record Productions label, featuring the ensemble Voces Musicales, which he had recently formed, in Arvo Pärt’s Pilgrim’s Song. Prizes at the Jorma Panula Conducting Competition in 2012 and the Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2015 opened doors to engagements across northern Europe, among them performances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, whose artistic director he became in 2015 and remained until 2019.
He has also held the artistic directorship of the Tallinn Philharmonic Society and led Estonia’s Birgitta Festival, while co-founding the music-theater group Kamber. His operatic repertoire is extensive, and he serves as conductor-in-residence at the Estonian National Opera.
In 2020 Joost assumed the posts of music director and chief conductor at Tartu’s Vanemuine Theatre. As a recording artist he has documented works by Arvo Pärt and Tõnu Kõrvits on multiple occasions, alongside Western scores such as Gounod’s Requiem with the Berlin Radio Chorus. Several projects involved the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, where he served as chief conductor from 2013 to 2019; two albums of Kõrvits’s music on the Ondine label appeared with that group in 2020, followed by The Sound of Wings in 2023. His discography now exceeds twenty releases.
Born in Tallinn on June 22, 1980, at that time within the Soviet Union, he began musical training at six and soon entered a specialized music school in the capital after his abilities became evident. He pursued studies at the Estonian Academy of Music in orchestral and choral conducting together with vocal performance as a countertenor. Graduate work followed at Vienna’s Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst and culminated in a master’s degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2008, where he worked under Jorma Panula.
His first recording appeared in 2010 on the Estonian Record Productions label, featuring the ensemble Voces Musicales, which he had recently formed, in Arvo Pärt’s Pilgrim’s Song. Prizes at the Jorma Panula Conducting Competition in 2012 and the Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2015 opened doors to engagements across northern Europe, among them performances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, whose artistic director he became in 2015 and remained until 2019.
He has also held the artistic directorship of the Tallinn Philharmonic Society and led Estonia’s Birgitta Festival, while co-founding the music-theater group Kamber. His operatic repertoire is extensive, and he serves as conductor-in-residence at the Estonian National Opera.
In 2020 Joost assumed the posts of music director and chief conductor at Tartu’s Vanemuine Theatre. As a recording artist he has documented works by Arvo Pärt and Tõnu Kõrvits on multiple occasions, alongside Western scores such as Gounod’s Requiem with the Berlin Radio Chorus. Several projects involved the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, where he served as chief conductor from 2013 to 2019; two albums of Kõrvits’s music on the Ondine label appeared with that group in 2020, followed by The Sound of Wings in 2023. His discography now exceeds twenty releases.
Albums
Tõnu Kõrvits: Hymns to the Nordic Lights & Other Works
2020
Jean-Paul Dessy: Requiems
2018
La donna è mobile: Famous Tenor Arias by Verdi
2017
Rachmaninov: All-Night Vigil
2017
Kõrvits: Moorland Elegies
2017
Confessions of Faith: Choral Concertos by Bortniansky & Schnittke
2017
Das Treffen in Telgte
2015
Charles Gounod: Requiem / Antonin Dvorak: Messe in D
2014
Pärt: Te Deum, Fratres, Wallfahrtslied
2012
Pärt & Palestrina
2011
Live
