John Storgårds

John Storgårds studied conducting, composition and the violin, the latter with Esther Rautio and Jouko Ignatius in Finland and with the legendary Chaim Taub in Israel. His teachers in conducting include Jorma Panula, Eri Klas, Atso Almila, Leif Segerstam and Ilya Musin. Storgårds also studied composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Storgårds began his career as a violinist and concertmaster in several symphony orchestras including the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Storgårds began as the artistic director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra in 1996. During his tenure the orchestra has become one of the leading European chamber orchestras.

He is particularly known for his innovative and pioneering programming as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2015). Since 2012 Storgårds has been working outside his native country first as Principal Guest Conductor and since 2018 as Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ottawa National Arts Center Orchestra (2015-). Between the years 2016 and 2019 Storgårds closely collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra as Artistic Partner, also as soloist. Storgårds has also held posts with the Oulu Philharmonic Orchestra (1997-2000), Tapiola Sinfonietta (2001-2003) and Tampere Filharmonia (2006-2009).

Storgårds has had guest appearances with major symphony orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota, Toronto and St. Louis Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2012 Storgårds has been among the regular performers at the BBC Proms. Storgårds has also worked at the Finnish National Opera where he drew international attention by conducting the world premiere of Sebastian Fagerlund’s new opera Höstsonaten (Autumn Sonata) in 2017. At the Savonlinna opera festivals Storgårds has led the performances of Mozart’s operas The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni.