Mariss Jansons has been the Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks since the 2003/2005 season. In 2007 he extended his contract for the second time, now until August 31, 2012.

Born in the Latvian capital of Riga in 1943 and raised in the Soviet Union, the son of conductor Arvid Jansons completed his education with honors at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied violin, piano and conducting, moving on to studies in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky and Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan. In 1971, Mariss Jansons won the Karajan Foundation Conducting Competition in Berlin. His artistic work was decisively influenced by Evgeny Mravinsky, who brought Jansons to the Leningrad Philharmonic, today's St. Petersburg Philharmonic, as his assistant in 1971. He remained allied with this orchestra as a regular guest conductor until 1999. In addition, Mariss Jansons held a professorship in conducting at St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1971 to 2000.

From 1979 to 2000, Mariss Jansons set standards as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, which he shaped into an international top orchestra. Besides this, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-1997) and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1997-2004). In addition to his duties with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, he assumed the position of Chief Conductor of the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam in the autumn of 2004. Beyond this, he has collaborated with virtually every major orchestra in the world. A special position on this list is accorded to the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras: Mariss Jansons conducts these orchestras regularly in Vienna and Berlin, as well as on tour throughout Europe, the United States and Japan, as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

On January 1, 2006, Mariss Jansons first conducted the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, which was televised on 60 different stations on every continent of the world and seen by more than 50 million televiewers. His "début" was enthusiastically acclaimed by press and public and has been released as a CD and a DVD on the Deutsche Grammophon label.

Mariss Jansons

Mariss Jansons has given a sizable number of concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at home and abroad. They have made guest appearances in the major musical capitals of Europe, such as London, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Rome. Until 2010, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons's direction continues to serve as the orchestra in residence at the Easter Festival in Lucerne.

In the  autumn of 2005 they went on their first tour of Japan and China, receiving top honors from the Japanese press ("Best concerts of the year"). In the autumn of 2006 they also made guest appearances in Philadelphia, Chicago and at New York's Carnegie Hall, and in the summer of 2007 they undertook a tour with appearances at the renowned European festivals, including Baden-Baden, Salzburg, Bregenz, Lucerne, Edinburgh, the London "Proms" and the Musikfest in Berlin. An extended concert tour took the musicians back to Japan in November of 2007.

Together with the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons and the orchestra have performed the central works of the choral symphonic repertoire, inter alia Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms", Poulenc's "Stabat mater", Brahms's "Ein deutsches Requiem" and "Gesang der Parzen" in Munich as well as the requiem settings by Mozart, Dvorák and Verdi in Munich and at the Lucerne Festival. In October of 2007 they made a guest appearance before Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. One important item on the program of the current 2008/2009 season is Karol Szymanowski's seldom-heard Third Symphony "The Song of the Night".

One special activity for Mariss Jansons in Munich is youth work and the encouragement of up-and-coming talent. He devotedly supports the Academy of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and gives regular concerts with youth and student orchestras and choruses.

Mariss Jansons has recorded several works with different orchestras on a wide variety of labels. Many of his recordings have received renowned accolades, such as the ones awarded to him for Dvorák's Fifth and Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, the "Symphonie fantastique" by Hector Berlioz and Mahler's First, Sixth and Ninth Symphonies. In 2005, Mariss Jansons completed his EMI Classics series of all the symphonies by Dmitry Shostakovich, in which the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks took an important part, participating in the final recordings. In February of 2006 the recording of the 13th Symphony received a Grammy in the category "Best Orchestra Performance". The album with the complete symphonies, released in the summer of 2006, received a number of prizes world-wide, among them the Annual Prize from the German Recording Critics, the Annual Prize from "Le Monde de la Musique" as well as the prizes for "Recording of the Year" and the "Best Symphonic Recording" at the 2007 MIDEM in Cannes.

Under the title, "Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Live" SONY BMG has released several CD's with live recordings of works by Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Schönberg, Britten, Webern, Stravinsky and Shchedrin. For his recordings of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and the concert suite from "A csodálatos mandarin" ("The Miraculous Mandarin") as well as Ravel's Suite No. 2 from "Daphins et Chloé", Mariss Jansons received the ECHO Klassik Award in June of 2008.

Mariss Jansons is an Honorary Member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, as well as an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1996 her was "EMI Artist of the Year". For his contribution to the Oslo Philharmonic he was awarded the Royal Order of Merit "Commander with Star", the highest honor accorded a foreigner in that country. In 2003 he received the Hans von Bülow Medal from the Berlin Philharmonic, and in 2004 London's Royal Philharmonic Society honored him as "Conductor of the Year". In 2006 he was declared "Artist of the Year" at the MIDEM International Music Trade Fair in Cannes. Besides these accolades, he has also been awarded the "Three Stars" medal, the highest award presented by the Republic of Latvia. Mariss Jansons holds an honorary doctorate from the Music Academies in Oslo and Riga. In 2007 the city of Vienna presented him with the Golden Medal of Honor; that same year Mariss Jansons was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit, the European Conducting Prize from the "Pro Europa" Foundation as well as the ECHO Klassik "Conductor of the Year" award.