Henri Christofer Aavik

(conductor)

EDUCATION AND WORK
Parallel to his studies in Tallinn Music High School, Henri Christofer Aavik furthered his education with Prof. Jorma Panula in Sibelius Academy and in Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar and in the University of Fine Arts in Zürich. Currently he studies in the joint Master’s programme of the Royal Conservatoire the Hague and Amsterdam. Henri has participated in the master classes of Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Paavo Järvi ja Bruno Weili and furthered his musical education with Christof Löser, Steffen Schleiermacher, Rüdiger Bohn and Zsolt Nagy. 

Henri Christofer has conducted more than 70 music ensembles, including Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Staatskapelle Weimar, the Jenaer Philharmonie, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Senzaspine, the North Netherlands Orchestra. In 2017–2019, he was the artistic director of the Ilmenau University of Technology Symphony Orchestra in Germany. In the season 2022/23, Henri debuted in front of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Israel Camerata Jerusalem and Bergische Symphoniker. Since the season 2020/21, he has been a guest conductor with the Estonian National Opera (Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”, Verdi’s “La triaviata”) and repeatedly stepped on the podium with the Pärnu City Orchestra. In 2021, he was the first to create an orchestra of all the young Estonian musicians studying in Europe.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In 2011, Henri conducted performances within the Estonian National Opera youth project “Love for Contraband” for which he was acknowledged by the Tallinn Education Department as “Tallinn Young Culture Figure 2011”. In 2014, he won the first prize at the Estonian Youth Woodwind Orchestra Conductors’ competition. In the same year, he was the artistic director and conductor of the Tallinn Music High School opera project, conducting Mozart’s “Bastien und Bastienne”. In 2022, he received the 1st prize at the VIII International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition and the 2nd prize at the V Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition. In 2021–2023, he was the scholarship holder of the German Music Council’s Conductors’ Forum (Forum Dirigieren des Deutschen Musikrats).