John Storgards

Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, John Storgårds is also Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. He has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognised for his creative flair for programming traditional, rare and contemporary music in his performances. As a guest conductor he appears with orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and major American orchestras in Cincinnati, St. Louis, Washington DC, Boston, and Cleveland.

He has won particular acclaim for his interpretations of works by Sibelius and Nielsen, and his repertoire also includes all the symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mozart, Schubert, and Schumann. His commitment to discovering new or unknown repertoire has resulted in many world premiere performances of music by Brett Dean, Kaija Saariaho, Per Nørgård, Korngold, and even Sibelius, amongst many others. He is an active chamber musician at festivals, not least at the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra’s annual Summer Sounds, and appears frequently as a solo violinist with international orchestras. His vast discography showcases his repertoire interests with numerous award-winning recordings, with many different orchestras. His recording of Pēteris Vasks’s Second Symphony and Violin Concerto, featuring him as soloist, received the Cannes Classical Disc of the Year Award in 2004 and his Rautavaara disc with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra won a Gramophone Award in 2012. John Storgårds studied violin, composition, and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and also violin with Chaim Taub in Israel. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002.