Energy, elegance and spirit – that is what particularly distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. He was principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra from September 2014 to July 2021 and said goodbye in June 21 with a major concert at the Alte Oper, about which the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote:
"The image of a balance of human impeccability, communicative passion and the highest professionalism emerged. An orchestra, it was understood, wants to enjoy its work and at the same time make serious mu- sical progress, and of course that sounds easier than it is. But it is precisely the combination of dancelike playfulness and an unconditional search for perfection that obviously distinguishes the Colombian’s work."
He led the Houston Symphony Orchestra as Music Director from 2014-2022 and was also Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020-2022).
Orozco-Estrada regularly conducts Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Kon- inklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchestre National de France, as well as major U.S. orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also conducted concerts and opera performances at the Berlin State Opera and the Salzburg Festival with outstanding success.
After his farewell concerts in Houston, where he will conduct Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Orozco- Estrada will conclude the 2021/22 season with his Filarmonica Joven and a major European tour. The or- chestra will perform at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Kölner Phil- harmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.
Guest conducting engagements in the coming season will take him to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the NDR Elbphilharmonieorchester, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Israel Philharmonic.
He will also return to the podium of the hr-Sinfonieorchester and the Staatsoper Berlin, where he will con- duct the revival of La Traviata.
A tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe will take him to the Canary Islands as well as to the Mo- zartwoche Salzburg. A concert week and a master class for conductors with the Orquesta Sinfónica Freix- enet de la Escuela Reina Sofía are also planned.
His CD releases on the Pentatone label have received much attention: with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, he made recordings of Stravinsky’s Firebird and Rite of Spring, which were praised by critics as "hauntingly beautiful" (Gramophone). His concert recordings of Richard Strauss’s operas Salome and El- ektra have also enjoyed great success. With the Houston Symphony, he released a “zestful” Dvořák cycle “with warm colours” (Pizzicato). He has also recorded all Brahms and Mendelssohn symphonies.
Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin, re- ceiving his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997 he moved to Vienna, where he was accepted into the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, a student of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. In October, Orozco-Estrada will take up his professorship in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna.
www.rbartists.at www.orozco-estrada.com
One of the most versatile conductors of his generation, Łukasz Borowicz regularly leads the major European orchestras in the core Germanic repertoire as well as important Russian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian works. He conducts opera and has received numerous prizes for his over 80 recordings. From 2007 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw, and in 2006 he was appointed Chief Guest Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, a title he retains.
In the 18/19 season Borowicz makes his debuts with Paris Opera (Les Huguenots), Hungarian National Orchestra and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and leads a new production of Halka by Stanisław Moniuszko at Polish National Opera. He performs on tour with the Poznań Philharmonic, and returns to the Warsaw Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Janáček Philharmonic and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy, as well as the orchestras in Katowice, Szczecin, Gdańsk and Łódź. Ongoing recording projects include a multi-disc recording of Anton Bruckner’s sacred music with RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin for Accentus, as well as a release of Hugo Alfven’s five symphonies with the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin on CPO. He also records an album of cello concertos by exiled Jewish composers with Raphael Wallfisch and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Łukasz Borowicz has appeared as guest conductor with SWR Sinfonieorchester, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Hamburger Symphoniker, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Luzerner Symfonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lille, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and a number of other orchestras and ensembles, including all the major Polish symphonies. Last season he made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Bamberger Symphoniker. He has led concerts at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Kissinger Sommer Festival, and has an ongoing relationship with the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, which has seen eleven rarely played operas recorded and released to date.
Borowicz made his operatic debut at Polish National Opera with Don Giovanni, which has been followed by over 130 performances at the house, including new productions of Orfeo ed Euridice, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Rite of Spring and Romeo and Juliet. In the 19/20 season he will direct a new production of Halka at Theater an der Wien. Further operatic credits include premieres of Zauberflöte, Rusalka, Dido and Aeneas, Blubeard’s Castle (Łódź), Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Halka and King Roger (Kraków), Eugene Onegin (Nantes) and King Roger (Bilbao).
A prolific recording artist with over 75 albums to his name, Borowicz’s recordings have been awarded three Diapason d’Or prizes. Symphonic recordings include the complete violin concertos by Grażyna Bacewicz for Chandos, the complete symphonic works by Andrzej Panufnik for CPO, and several titles for Hyperion. The final installment of the Panufnik cycle was selected as an Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine, and Borowicz received the ICMA Special Achievement Award in 2015 for his pioneering work on the cycle. In 2018 he received another ICMA award for his recording of Quo Vadis by Feliks Nowowiejski. His collaboration with Piotr Beczała on Deutsche Grammophon’s recording Heart’s delight – Songs of Richard Tauber was met with wide critical and public praise.
Born in Warsaw in 1977, Łukasz Borowicz graduated from the Frederic Chopin Music Academy, where he studied under Bogusław Madey. He received a doctorate in conducting under Antoni Wit. He has received the Polityka Passport Award (2008), Coryphée of Polish Music Award (2011), Norwid Award (2013) and Tansman Prize honouring an outstanding musical personality (2014).
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<em>Heroic performances from the LPO and Łukasz Borowicz</em>
— Bachtrack (May 2018)
<em>I had not previously seen the Polish conductor perform but I was impressed – by the unfussy attentiveness to score and soloist in Penderecki’s Concerto and by the lithe freedom of his interpretation and rendering of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony (1944).</em>
— Seen and Heard International (May 2018)
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Jukka-Pekka Saraste has established himself as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation, demonstrating remarkable musical depth and integrity. Born in Heinola, Finland, he began his career as a violinist before training as a conductor with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. An artist of exceptional versatility and breadth and renowned for his objective approach, he feels a special affinity with the sound and style of late Romantic music. He maintains a particularly strong connection to the works of Beethoven, Bruckner, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Sibelius and is internationally celebrated for his interpretations of Mahler.
In April 2022, Jukka-Pekka was named as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He will begin his tenure in summer 2023. From 2010 to 2019, he served as Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. During his term, the orchestra built a reputation both at home and abroad, touring Austria, Spain, the Baltics, and Asia. The symphonic cycles of Sibelius, Brahms and Beethoven were exceptionally well received. Previously, from 2006 to 2013, Jukka-Pekka Saraste was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. He was subsequently appointed Conductor Laureate, the very first such title bestowed by the orchestra. Earlier positions include the principal conductorships of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he is now Conductor Laureate, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Advisor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He founded the Finnish Chamber Orchestra, where he remains the Artistic Advisor. Last but not least, Jukka-Pekka Saraste is a founding member of the LEAD! Foundation, a mentorship programme for young conductors and soloists. Based in Finland, the foundation has run projects in Stockholm, Lausanne, Dortmund and Sofia. In 2020, it also created the Fiskars Summer Festival, an international platform for both Finnish and international artists to pass on their knowledge and experience to the next generation of conductors
from all around the world. The second edition of the festival took place in the summer of 2021.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s guest engagements have led him to the major orchestras worldwide, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and the leading Scandinavian orchestras. In North America, he has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New York Philharmonic, as well as Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. In recent years, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has developed a strong profile in opera and, following concert performances of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, Schönberg’s Erwartung and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, had great success at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna with a new scenic production of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, directed by Calixto Bieito, and Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Finnish National Opera. In the
2020-2021 season, he conducted a new staging of Reimann’s Lear at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste´s extensive discography includes the complete symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and several well- received recordings with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra of works by Bartók, Dutilleux, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev for Warner Finlandia. His CDs with WDR Symphony Orchestra for Hänssler have likewise earned him much critical praise.
They include Schönberg’s Pelleas and Melisande, Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, Brahms’ complete Symphonies as well as Mahler’s 5th and 9th Symphony and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. The complete cycle of Beethoven’s symphonies, released in 2019 to high critical acclaim, can be regarded as a legacy of his tenure in Cologne.
Jukka-Pekka Saraste has received the Pro Finlandia Prize, the Sibelius Medal, and the Finnish State Prize for Music. He holds honorary doctorates from York University, Toronto and Sibelius Academy, Helsinki.
Music Director of Prague State Opera and newly appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor at the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, German conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens is recognized as a conductor of great distinction in both the operatic and symphonic worlds. As a sought-after guest conductor, he has worked with major orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Zurich Tonhalle and the Israel Philharmonic, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig and Stuttgart. Last season he continued his relationship with the Philharmonia in London following his Brahms cycle with them and returned to the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg. During his time as Music Director of the Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic, the orchestra received the ECHO award for Best Orchestra in 2015 for their recording of works by B.A. Zimmermann and in 2016-17 they were nominated prizewinners of the Best Concert Program of the Season by the German Music Publishers’ Association. Their recording of works by George Antheil was designated Concert Recording of the Year by the Opus Klassik awards. In the opera house, he has appeared several times at the Teatro alla Scala and is regularly invited to the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden. While Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, he led the Norwegian premiere of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, amonng others. Prior to his conducting career, he was a highly respected solo clarinetist who also held several orchestral positions culminating in the successive posts of Principal Clarinet with the Bavarian Radio and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Karl-Heinz Steffens has recently been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in Germany for his services to music.
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