John Storgards

Education

Storgårds studied violin with Esther Raitio and Jouko Ignatius at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and continued his violin studies with Chaim Taub in Israel.

Career

Chamber Orchestra. After experience leading orchestras from the front desk of the violin section, his interest in conducting increased after an invitation to conduct the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently returned to the Sibelius Academy from 1993-1997 to study conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. In 1996, Storgårds became Artistic Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland.

With the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, he became Principal Guest Conductor in 2003 and subsequently Chief Conductor in autumn 2008, for an initial contract of 4 years.

His Helsinki contract has since been extended to 2014. In October 2013, the orchestra announced a further extension of his contract through December 2015, at which time Storgårds concluded his Helsinki tenure.

From 2006 to 2009, Storgårds was Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. Storgårds has held the Artistic Directorships of many summer festivals, most recently of the Korsholm Music Festival between 2004–2006, and Avanti"s! Summer Sounds Festival.

Outside of Finland, in March 2011, Storgårds was appointed principal guest conductor of the British Broadcasting Corporation Philharmonic, effective January 2012, succeeding Vassily Sinaisky.

In January 2015, Storgårds was named the new principal guest conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO), only the second conductor ever to hold the title, effective with the 2015-2016 season with an initial contract of 3 seasons. He has made a number of international recordings for Ondine, Sony and Bank for International Settlements Records, including recordings of music by Andrzej Panufnik and John Corigliano. In 2014, his recording with the British Broadcasting Corporation Philharmonic of the complete symphonies of Jean Sibelius was released, including his second recording of three fragments of the Eighth Symphony.

Achievements

• Storgårds received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002. His recording of Pēteris Vasks" Violin Concerto Distant Light and Second Symphony won the Cannes Classical Disc of the Year Award in 2004.

Membership

He was a founding member of the Avanti!.