Jüri Reinvere’s Concerto for Violin, Harp and Orchestra Premieres in Cleveland
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Jüri Reinvere’s Concerto for Violin, Harp and Orchestra is unveiled in May with violinist Leila Josefowicz, harp soloist Trina Struble, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Franz Welser-Möst.
Jüri Reinvere—recently named Composer of the Year at the prestigious 2025 OPUS Klassik Awards—has composed a new Concerto for Violin, Harp and Orchestra for violin soloist Leila Josefowicz, Principal Harpist Trina Struble, The Cleveland Orchestra, and Franz Welser-Möst., The work is unveiled on May 22 as part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2026 Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, curated by composer Terrence Blanchard. Reinvere’s 30-minute concerto is programmed alongside Dvorák’s Hero’s Song, Hailstork’s Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed, and Bacewicz’s Symphony No. 4.
Reinvere’s inspiration for this double concerto came from rehearsals of his 2018 orchestral work And Tired from Happiness, They Started to Dance with the Estonian Festival Orchestra and Paavo Järvi. “The harpists of the Estonian Festival Orchestra inspired me so much with their joy of music-making and experimentation that I developed the desire to write a concertante work for harp and orchestra,” says Reinvere.
When Franz Welser-Möst asked the composer if he could imagine writing a double concerto for The Cleveland Orchestra, Jüri Reinvere chose to pair violin and harp—creating an opportunity to collaborate with Leila Josefowicz. “I very quickly thought of Leila Jozefowicz as the soloist,” he notes. “She has so inspired the newer concerto literature for violin with her skill and imagination."
In his program note, the composer describes wanting to explore the juxtaposition between the violin and harp: “Harp and violin are both stringed instruments, but they don't have much more in common than pizzicato ... The relationship between the closeness and distance of the two solo instruments and the center and periphery of the solo concertos dedicated to them determined my reflections on this particular double concerto.”
Later this spring, Reinvere’s Night Picture with Java Ferns for solo piano receives its world premiere by participants of the Rudolf Tobias Piano Competition in Kaina, Estonia (May 29). Additionally, The Song of Two Earths for soprano, kannel, and orchestra is unveiled with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Matthias Pintscher (June 12).
About Jüri Reinvere
Reinvere is an Estonian composer, who has been living in Germany since 2005. His compositions often set to music his own poetical writings, whose complex idiom is based on a cosmopolitan life experience.
His first composition teacher was Lepo Sumera. The pianistic training he received in Tallinn took him as far as the concert exam. From 1990 to 1992 Reinvere studied composition at the Fryderyk-Chopin-Music-Academy in Warsaw. From 1994 onwards, he studied composition with Veli-Matti Puumala and Tapio Nevanlinna at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, earning a master's degree in 2004.
Reinvere’s aesthetics have two aspects: on the one hand, stark modernism with all its attendant harshness of sound, and a steadfastly courageous romanticism on the other. Thus, his music takes on many different sonic guises. His large-scale works, especially the operas and orchestral compositions, take a middle path between the two aspects. They adhere to a psychological understanding of dramatic art, but expand the means of expression beyond the traditions familiar today. In his chamber music and ensemble pieces Reinvere often combines advanced techniques of sound production with classical narrative structures. The stringent development of the work’s form goes hand-in-hand with an openness to themes drawn from other art forms, questions of theology, politics, general history and everyday life. The main focus, however, remains on the immediate, sensual presence of art.
Concert Information
Friday, May 22 at 7:30pm ET
Severance Music Center | Cleveland, OH
More info
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Trina Struble, harp
ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed
GRAZYNA BACEWICZ Symphony No. 4
Jüri Reinvere Concerto for Violin, Harp and Orchestra (World Premiere)
Antonín Dvorák Hero’s Song
> Further information on Work: Concerto for Violin, Harp and Orchestra
Photo: Elly Clarke