Jaan Ots

Jaan is an Estonian conductor and pianist. During the last season, he made his debut at the Finnish National Ballet with Tchaikovsky`s "Nutcracker" and led the Glasperlenspiel Sinfonietta in collaboration with the award-winning choir Collegium Musicale in tour. Most recently, he debuted at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with Hamburger Camerata.

In addition to that, Jaan has conducted the Lahti Sinfonia, Pärnu City Orchestra and Narva City Symphony Orchestra. He has held the position of Assistant Conductor at the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for the season 2015-16, assisted Verdi`s "Otello" production at the Savonlinna Opera Festival 2018 and Bizet "Carmen" at the Vaasa Theater.

His upcoming engagements include assistantship at the Greek National Opera in the production of Shostakovich "Lady Macbeth from Mtsensk District", concerts with the Tallinn Music Highschool Symphony Orchestra, which he leads as chief conductor for the 2nd season, and debut with Eesti Sinfonietta.

Jaan has a Bachelor`s degree in Piano Performance from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater, and a Masters`s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Sibelius Academy (Finland). During the course of his conducting studies, he spent one year as an exchange student at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSM) in France.  In the meantime, he had the opportunity to participate in master-classes of distinguished conductors such as Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Thomas Sanderling and David Zinman, during which he had the chance to conduct numerous orchestras, including the Shanghai Opera Orchestra, the Oulu Sinfonia, the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Miskolc and the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava (Czech Republic).​

Coming from family of musicians, he has been involved with music from a very early age. In addition to piano, his wide musical background also includes extensive studies in trumpet playing. Having excelled in both instruments, Jaan is a laureate of over 20 competition in Estonia, Latvia, Russia and Germany, including 1st prices at Steinway&Sons Piano Competition for Young Pianists and the Estonian National Competition for Wind Instruments.

In parallel to his conducting activities, Jaan is an active chamber musician. He is member of Frielinghaus Ensemble and touring around Europe with various ensembles such as the Amaryllis quartet and the Frielinghaus Ensemble. He is also member of Piano Trio TEOS.

Jaan is founder of the Beethoven Now! Project and Chamber Orchestra, an initiative to explore Beethoven’s music and the classical era through a broad and innovative approach.