Prizewinner of the Malko Conducting Competition 2015 and Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2012, Risto Joost has gained widespread recognition for his work both in the opera pit and on concert stage. His repertoire ranges from Baroque to the most challenging works of contemporary composers. Since 2009 Joost is the Conductor in residence of the Estonian National Opera, Chief Conductor of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra from 2013, Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Choir from 2015/16 and from spring 2016 Artistic Director of Tallinn Philharmonic Society and Birgitta Festival.
Within short time Risto Joost has conducted many internationally acclaimed orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, MDR Leipzig Symphony, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony, NorrlandsOperan Orchestra, Gävle Symphony, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, Vaasa City Orchestra, Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Tallinn Youth Orchestra, Tallinn Baroque Orchestra and the Macao Orchestra. He has also been working a number of esteemed vocal ensembles such as the RIAS Kammerchor, Rundfunkchor Berlin, SWR Vokalensemble, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Ars Nova Copenhagen and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.
His operatic repertoire includes L’elisir d’amore, La Traviata, La Bohème, Tosca, Carmen, Gounod’s Faust, Capuleti e iMontecchi, Wallenberg by Erkki-Sven Tüür and ballets as Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Manon, Modigliani - The Cursed Artist and others.
In the 2017/2018 season, new challenges await Risto Joost in front of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Choir in the famous Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra in Brazil, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tapiola Sinfionetta. Joost will perform Haydn’s oratorio The Creation with the MDR Radio Choir and Orchestra in Leipzig with whom he will also record Brahms’ masterpiece A German Requiem in the Gewanthaus concert hall. At the Estonia National Opera he will conduct Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and, for the first time, Verdi’s Aida. Additionally, the entire season will be peppered with concerts dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, which will take place in Estonia and abroad – in Milan, Turin, Gröningen and Brussels. For the very first time, the whole programme of this year’s Birgitta Festival is being devised under Joost’s guidance.
Risto Joosts discography includes recordings by Haydn with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Peeter Vähi with the Latvian National Symphony, Arvo Pärt with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir, various recordings of Estonian music with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
In 2016 Risto Joost received the Music Prize of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for artistic activities home and abroad and he was also awarded the Young Cultural Figure Award of the Estonian Republic in 2011.
Risto Joost has studied orchestral and choral conducting as well as singing at the Estonian Academy of Music and received further training at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 2008, Risto Joost graduated from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with a Masters Degree, majoring in orchestral conducting with Jorma Panula.