John Storgårds
Conductor
“Helios Overture developed out of nothing into a climax of majestic radiance. This was just a taster for the palette of sounds Storgårds brought into play for the Sibelius.” The Guardian
Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and recently announced as the Principal Guest Conductor of BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from the 12/13 season, John Storgårds is one of Finland’s exceptional artists who have taken the classical music world by storm in recent decades. He has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognised for his creative flair for programming and his commitment to contemporary music. He additionally holds the title of Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland, giving some of Europe’s most imaginative concerts north of the Arctic Circle.
Storgårds appears with such orchestras as BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Bamberger Symphoniker, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino. Further afield, he has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand Symphonies and Kioi Sinfonietta. Soloists with whom he regularly collaborates include Gil Shaham, Christian Tetzlaff, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Colin Currie, Håkan Hardenberger, Sabine Meyer, Kari Kriikku, Karita Mattila and Matti Salminen.
This season begins in Helsinki with the opening of the prestigious new Helsinki Music Centre, where Storgårds leads symphonic and chamber concerts with Helsinki Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. Notable debuts in the season include Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, and he performs several times in North America, returning to Cincinnati Symphony and appearing for the first time with National Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Houston Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival.
Storgårds’ programming trademark is to combine traditional repertoire alongside symphonic rarities; during the current season, he conducts works by Brahms, Sibelius and Mahler and also Britten, Stenhammar and Xenakis. Contemporary music features strongly, with international premiere performances of Brett Dean’s Viola Concerto, with the composer as soloist, Rautavaara Cello Concerto with Truls Mørk, Uljas Pulkkis’ Piano Concerto with Henri Sigfridsson, and Mark Anthony Turnage’s ‘From the Wreckage’, with Håkan Hardenberger.
In the opera field, he recently conducted Verdi’s Don Carlos at Tampere Opera and gave the Finnish premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s The Enchanted Wanderer, in a concert performance to open his first season as Chief Conductor in Helsinki.
Storgårds’ vast discography includes the award-winning Vasks’ Violin Concerto Distant Light and Second Symphony, Saariaho’s Graal Theatre, works of Corigliano, Sibelius Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann and, most recently, an extremely well-received disc of works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
John Storgårds was concert master of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra during Esa-Pekka Salonen’s tenure and subsequently studied conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002.
SEASON 2011/2012
