Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, John Storgårds enjoys a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso; he is widely recognised for his creative flair for programming and his rousing yet refined performances. As Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, a title he has held for more than twenty-five years, he has earned global critical acclaim for the ensemble’s adventurous performances and award-winning recordings. He appears with such orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre national de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and all major Nordic orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra of which he served as Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2015. Further afield, he appears with leading orchestras in Australia, Japan, and the United States. He collaborates with soloists such as Yefim Bronfman, Sol Gabetta, Kirill Gerstein, Håkan Hardenberger, Kari Kriikku, Gil Shaham, Baiba Skride, Christian Tetzlaff, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Frank Peter Zimmermann, as well as Soile Isokoski and Anne Sofie von Otter.

His vast repertoire includes all the symphonies by Sibelius, Nielsen, Bruckner, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann. He regularly performs world premières, many works, such as Per Nørgård’s Symphony No. 8 and Kaija Saariaho’s Nocturne for solo violin, having been dedicated to him. During the 2022 / 23 season he returned to the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic, and also to the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He further made his début with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and conducted the world première production of Tapio Tuomela’s The Fur Hat Opera, performing the work with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra both in Rovaniemi and at the Finnish National Opera, in Helsinki.

Having studied violin with Chaim Taub, John Storgårds became concert master of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, then studied conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002 and the Pro Finlandia Prize in 2012.