Born in Tallinn in 1971, Olari Elts has won great respect for his distinctive interpretative style, in which intelligence and lucidity are always apparent. Winner of the International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki in 2000, he became Principal Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2001-2006, earning praise for his astute programming as well as his music-making. In September 2006 he took up the newly-created position of Artistic Advisor of the Orchestre de Bretagne. From the beginning of the 2007/08 season he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.
Olari Elts’s career was launched by the Sibelius Competition and since then he has developed and continues to maintain relationships with a number of orchestras world-wide, including Helsinki Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestre de Pari,s Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Sinfoniker, SWR Stuttgart, Lucerne Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Touloluse, City of Birmingham Symphony, Ensemble Modern and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with whom he made his US debut. He also visits Australia and New Zealand regularly, appearing with orchestras including Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Olari Elts is founder and director of his own contemporary music ensemble, NYYD Ensemble. The ensemble takes its name from the international festival of new music in Estonia, where it gave its debut performance in 1993.