"I barely have time to celebrate birthdays because they come so often. A birthday doesn't always fall on a date when it can be properly celebrated. I'm already thinking about what will happen next year. Arvo Pärt and I grew up together, and we're still growing — we may have years on our backs now, but we still have that drive, and it's very hard to put the brakes on it," said conductor Neeme Järvi.

Järvi said that the composer closest to his heart is Joseph Haydn. "My birthday is connected with him. Haydn wrote 104 symphonies, oratorios, and much more. For my 88th birthday I performed Haydn's 88th symphony; now I'm playing the 89th, and next year I definitely want to do his 90th. But he wrote 104 symphonies, so I still have plenty ahead of me," Järvi said with a smile. "Good music is what we live for in this world."

Järvi was born on June 7, 1937, in the Nõmme district of Tallinn. "Both my parents were hairdressers. I started studying music early. At four years old, I was playing the xylophone. My brother Vallo, who was 14 years older, was a major role model for me in the field of percussion — he played in major orchestras. Vallo also taught me," Järvi recalled.

"The profession of a hairdresser was very important at that time. Everyone needed their hair cut and their beard shaved. That's why my parents also started building a house in Nõmme, even though they weren't wealthy. It was my mother who pushed us toward art and music," Järvi said.

"Since Vallo became a conductor, there wasn't really anything else I could become. The same goes for my descendants — what else are you going to do in life? Conducting is the best profession, because you can embrace the whole world with it — you live inside music. There is no better purpose for living," Järvi noted. "Of course, you have to work very hard — without work, nothing comes."

Järvi graduated from the then Leningrad Conservatory and returned to Estonia in 1960. "From that time on, I've been working as a conductor. I was a young man, Arvo Pärt was a young man, as were Jaan Rääts, Jaan Koha, Eino Tamberg, Veljo Tormis — we all worked tirelessly and created Estonian music."

According to Järvi, a great deal depends on who your parents are and whether they guide you in the right direction. "I'm fortunate to have had such parents. The influence of parents and family is very important in shaping you into a decent person, no matter what profession you choose."

Järvi noted that encores play a major role in orchestral psychology. "Conductors have to take certain things into account. Some factors do not support the promotion of good music. In Detroit, where I worked for 15 years, my predecessor performed Bruckner's symphonies, which last an hour, and audiences grew tired of them and stopped coming. As a conductor, I began performing brilliant encores. Suddenly, the audience woke up — the same people who had been dozing off during Bruckner. I kept doing this regularly, and ticket sales kept increasing, until we were giving four concerts a week, all sold out. There, all the money goes to the orchestra, and audiences couldn't wait to hear what the encore would be," Järvi said. "Finding ways to bring audiences into the hall is still a challenge in every city in the world."

In some places in the United States, orchestras must be paid extra for encores because they go beyond the scheduled working time, Järvi pointed out. "Let's say each musician gets $100 per minute. The orchestra management may then say, don't play encores. In Chicago, for example, encores are not allowed. My encores are short — they must not burden the audience," Järvi added.

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