“The Finnish conducting miracle” is the phrase used of the fantastic host of talented conductors to come out of sparsely-populated Finland over the last few decades. And from that crowd John Storgårds stands out. He has a dual career as conductor and violin virtuoso, and he is a pioneer in contemporary music – an idealistic and eclectic musician.
From the autumn of 2008 John Storgårds became the new chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic, one of Scandinavia’s best and most tradition-rich orchestras. He is also chief conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic and artistic director of the magical Lapland Chamber Orchestra, which gives some of Europe’s most imaginative concerts north of the Arctic Circle.
Abroad John Storgårds has appeared with international orchestras such as l’Orchestre de Paris, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared in the USA , Asia and Australia and with leading ensembles specializing in contemporary music such as the Parisian Ensemble Intercontemporain. He has recorded a succession of CDs and can be heard for example as a soloist in Dacapo’s recording of Sunleif Rasmussen’s Violin Concerto no. 2, Songs of Seasons.
Contemporary music is a mission for John Storgårds. As a young violinist he founded the prizewinning chamber orchestra Avanti!, where he alternated tirelessly between the roles of first violin and conductor. As a soloist he has performed the violin concerto Distant Light by the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks in many countries and has made it a modern standard. Storgårds’ recording of the concerto was chosen in 2004 as Classical Disc of the Year at the MI DEM festival in Cannes. He has given first performances of works by among others Kaija Saariaho, Kimmo Hakola and Karin Rehnqvist, and even of a work by the great national musical hero of his native land, Sibelius.
John Storgårds’ efforts for contemporary music were rewarded in 2002 with the two most prestigious Finnish prizes of the kind, the Wihuri Prize and the Finnish State Prize. Of his pioneering work John Storgårds himself says: “I’m willing to risk working with the new and unusual. I don’t choose the quick options.”