Arvo Pärt remains among the world’s most performed contemporary composers in Bachtrack’s annual list

The classical music website Bachtrack has published its annual overview of classical music concerts worldwide for 2024. According to Bachtrack’s statistics, Arvo Pärt’s music was performed last year more than any living composer apart from John Williams, who topped the rankings.

Other composers in the list included Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Jörg Widmann, Sir James McMillan, Thomas Adès, Steve Reich and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Four of Arvo Pärt’s works were among the year’s ten most performed pieces: Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel, Da pacem Domine and Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten.

The busiest conductor of the year was Finnish maestro Klaus Mäkelä, with Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi also featuring in the top ten. Estonia’s Kristiina Poska was among the ten most active female conductors.

The most performed of all composers in 2024 were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert. The year’s most performed piece was Antonín Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World.

The UK-based Bachtrack’s rankings are based on data from 30,774 musical events held in 48 countries over the past year.

Between 2012 and 2019, and again in 2022, Arvo Pärt was the world’s most performed contemporary classical composer according to Bachtrack’s data.

The Arvo Pärt Centre collects data on performances of Arvo Pärt’s works worldwide through its information system. Last year, 951 performances were recorded. The most performed pieces were Fratres, which was presented at 208 concerts, and Da pacem Domine, which was performed 141 times.

For more information on Bachtrack’s annual list, see https://bachtrack.com/classical-music-statistics-january-2024