Sakari Oramo

“Oramo really gets under the skin of this music, and the audience showered him with warm appreciation. I can feel National Treasure status beckoning already.” – Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph

Winner of the 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year award, Sakari Oramo is Chief Conductor of both the BBC Symphony and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras, and Principal Conductor of the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. Between 1998 and 2008 he was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and between 2004 and 2018 he was Principal Conductor of the West Coast Kokkola Opera. After a decade as Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, he has now served as their Honorary Conductor since 2012.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season include returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker – conducting the world premiere of Brett Dean’s new Cello Concerto performed by Alban Gerhardt – NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Staatskapelle Dresden, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He will continue to champion the promotion of new and rarely performed works with the BBC Symphony Orchestra – this season he conducts the premieres of Thomas Larcher’s “Chiasma” and Richard Causton’s “Ik Zeg Nu”, and will also lead a day featuring the works of György Ligeti – and will conduct numerous concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, with soloists Kirill Gerstein, Alina Pogostkina, Frank-Peter Zimmermann and Nina Stemme. Further highlights this season include tours with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra to Japan and Switzerland. In addition, he will tour to Spain with BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martin Fröst.

Previous seasons’ highlights have included concerts with the Czech Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. During the summer of 2018, he conducted several Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, including the First Night of the Proms, and the BBC Singers. He has also previously conducted the Last Night of the Proms (in 2014, 2016 and 2017).

An accomplished violinist, Oramo was originally concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 he made his debut in the BBC Proms Chamber Music series, performing Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins with Janine Jansen.

Recording successes include the BBC Music Magazine’s Orchestra award for his recording of Carl Nielsen Symphonies No. 1 and 3 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, which completes their highly acclaimed Nielsen cycle. Other recent releases with the BBC Symphony Orchestra include Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3 with Yevgeny Sudbin, and Florent Schmitt: Suites from “Antoine et Cléopâtre” and Symphony No. 2.

As of July 2019