"If I had a choice, I would die in the theater," Mariss Jansons, 65, one of the world's most famous Latvian conductors said. For Jansons, every performance finished is a performance stolen from God. During a performance in Oslo, Norway, in April 1996, Jansons nearly died of a heart attack while conducting the final pages of La Boheme.

Jansons and his orchestra Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) will perform in the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on November 4 and 5. During the following weeks, Amsterdam Nieuw Ensemble and the Orchestra of the 18th Century, both from the Netherlands, will perform on November 6 and 7, and November 13 and 14, respectively.


At home on the stage
Born in Riga, Latvia in 1943, Jansons is the son of Latvian conductor Arvid Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, was a Jew. She gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga ghetto.

"Although my father was a conductor, he did not teach me how to conduct. I first studied violin with my father," Jansons said.

Jansons grew up in the theater and was influenced by his father. "I listened to his rehearsals and concerts. When I was a little boy I knew what the life of a conductor was like and the repertoire he conducted. His conducting was a part of my life," he said.

And that life was in the theater, a home in which he knew every door and every room. "I had opportunity to listen to operas and concerts, and to see ballet. I was not an audience member anymore. I lived there. Growing up there made the theater a part of my spirit," he said.

His father and his life in the theater were his classes before he went to music school. When he was 13, he entered the Leningrad Conservatory in Russia, where he studied piano and conducting, although his father urged him to continue violin.

His father "directed me on my profession and all his suggestions helped me to become a young conductor," he said.

International Identity
Jansons considers himself a global citizen. Traveling is his favorite past time, whether it is for study, conducting or amusement. "I have visited almost every country and have friends from every corner of the world," he said.

In 1969, Jansons continued his training in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky (1899-1975), celebrated as both a conductor and as a teacher, and in Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan(1908-1989), an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor.

Two years later, he was a prizewinner at the International Herbert von Karajan Foundation Competition in Berlin.

"The experience in Latvia, Russia and Austria helped me connect Russian culture with Western culture. I do not limit my eyesight to one country, but I try to define my identity as an international one," he said.

Leading the World's Orchestra
Jansons has become chief conductor or guest conductor of orchestras in Russia, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and the US.

His conducting career began in 1973, when the director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, formerly the Leningrad Philharmonic, invited Jansons to assist him as associate conductor.

During Jansons' tenure, he conducted the orchestra on many of its successful tours to Europe, America, and Japan.

In 1979, he was appointed music director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he performed, recorded and toured extensively. In 1992, he was named principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and worked as a guest conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jansons became the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1997. "I worked in Russia, so I knew the music system there. I also worked in Norway and England, so I knew other music systems in Europe. I went to the US, because I wanted to know what music system this country had. This is why I worked with the Pittsburgh Symphony," he said.

His relationship with the Pittsburgh Symphony has been hailed as one of the most successful partnerships in the modern orchestral world. During his tenure as director, he led the Pittsburgh Symphony at Carnegie Hall each season and on tours of Japan, South America, the Far East and Europe.

As he cooperated with different orchestras, Jansons summed up the differences among them. "In Europe, everyone cares about style and sound. In America, they care about brilliant affection. Russians care about emotional expression, temperament and feelings," he said.

In 1996, he went into cardiac arrest at the podium during the closing bars of La Boheme. Further heart attacks in an Oslo hospital almost finished him off. A defibrillator was implanted in his chest to shock his heart back into action when next it stops.

At the start of the 2003-2004 season, he began his tenure as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He started his tenure as the sixth chief conductor of the RCO, the most respected symphony orchestra in the Netherlands, in 2004.

Jansons said music is the secret to staying passionate. "I hope the important moment in my life in the future will be conducting. I'm lucky that I received a wonderful education. My education helped me establish myself not only in music, but also as a human being," he said.

He said the most important thing for a performer is to think about how to improve his ability, not how to be famous. "If you are professional, everything will come to you," he said.