John Storgårds

The Audacious Tour: Guest Director and Violin

John Storgårds is one of the most versatile and respected Finnish musicians of his generation. Since making his conducting debut in 1996, Storgårds’ remarkable achievements already position him as an internationally acclaimed conductor. He is one of today’s leading performers and champions of new and rarely heard works alongside more familiar repertoire and his creative flair for programming is an impressive hallmark for him worldwide.

John Storgårds firstly studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and then with Chaim Taub in Israel. Having played professionally under the baton of many world-class conductors, he was inspired to take up conducting and returned to the Sibelius Academy from 1993-1997 to study with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas.

Storgårds began the 2006/07 season as Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra as well as holding the positions of Principal Guest Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. He has held the Artistic Directorships of many summer festivals, most recently of the Korsholm Music Festival between 2004-2006, and Avanti’s! Summer Sounds Festival.

Storgårds’ 2006/07 season demonstrates the striking commitment and versatility he brings to his work reflected in major engagements, world premieres and international soloists with whom he works. With the Danish National Symphony he conducts the world premiere of Benjamin Koppel’s Saxophone concerto; in London’s Barbican Centre, returning to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he conducts a BBC commission world premiere of a work for chorus and orchestra by Michael Nyman; with Kari Kriikku, in a co-commission between the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, they will perform the world premiere of Jukka Tiensu’s second clarinet concerto. Storgårds also conducts the MDR Leipzig Orchestra with soloists Isabelle van Keulen and Michael Collins in the German premiere of Erki-Sven Tüür’s double concerto.

Storgårds made an impressive BBC Proms debut in 2005 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestra National de Belgique, Gothenberg Symphony, the Finnish, Swedish and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. He has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne Symphonies, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, USA. Soloists with whom he regularly collaborates include Håkan Hardenberger, Christian Tetzlaff, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolai Znaijder, Grigory Sokolov, Stephen Hough and Sabine Meyer.

Storgårds’ recording for Ondine of Peteris Vasks’ Violin Concerto Distant Light and Second Symphony won the Cannes Classical Disc of the Year Award in 2004. He has recorded other major contemporarycomposers including Kaija Saariaho’s Graal theatre, works of John Corigliano with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and, most recently, a recording of the seldom heard Busoni Violin Concerto with soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann and the orchestra of RAI Turin.