John Axelrod. conductor
Now in his fifth season as music director and chief conductor of the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and Theater, John Axelrod has established his profile as one of today's leading conductors and is sought after by orchestras throughout the world. In the 2008-09 season, he debuts with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI of Torino, Orchestra Verdi in Milano, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Komische Oper in Berlin, and makes return engagements with Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Philharmonie, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, Brabants Orkest, Orchestre National Pays de la Loire. This season at Luzern, Mr. Axelrod ends his cycle of Beethoven's orchestral works conducting the Ninth Symphony, and leads a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni for the Lucerne Festival.As a guest conductor, John Axelrod has worked with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl), Philadelphia Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony, at Vienna's Musikverein with the Vienna Radio Symphony, Gurzenich-Orchester Köln, Berlin's Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Salzburg Mozarteum, and he is regular guest of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR RadioPhilharmonie of Hannover, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Hungarian National Philharmonic.
The soloists with whom he often collaborates include, among others: Han-Na Chang, Julia Fischer, Martin Grubinger, Daniel Hope, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Lang Lang, Sabine Meyer, Fazil Say, as well as Thomas Hampson, Dietrich Henschel, Rinat Shaham, Ramon Vargas.
His opera activity includes the premiere performances of Bernstein's Candide (directed by Robert Carsen) at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet and Milano's Teatro alla Scala and the new production of Krenek's Kehraus um St. Stephan at the Bregenz Festspiele. In his past seasons at the Luzerner Theater he conducted new productions of Kaiser von Atlantis, Rigoletto, Rake's Progress (for the Lucerne Festival), Il barbiere di Siviglia, Evgenij Onegin, Idomeneo (for the Lucerne Festival), Falstaff and Don Giovanni (for the Lucerne Festival).
As Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia since 2000, Mr. Axelrod has appeared in Europe's leading concert halls, seen on ARTE television, and performed on the grounds of Auschwitz in the Emmy Award winning 2007 BBC Holocaust Memorial Film. Mr. Axelrod is also the founder and conductor laureate of Houston's OrchestraX.
Mr. Axelrod's most recent recordings include Wolfgang Rihm's newly-commissioned piano concerto Sotto Voce II (together with Sotto Voce I) with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and the pianist Nicolas Hodges, Fazil Say's new violin concerto 1001 Nights in a Harem with Patricia Kopatchinskaya and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester, 2 discs featuring works by Franz Schreker and his students Ernst Krenek and Julius Burger, and a live recording from the 2006 Lucerne Festival of Bernstein's Third Symphony ('Kaddish'), Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw, and Weill's Berliner Requiem, all with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester for the Nimbus label; Dvořák's Ninth Symphony with the Württemburgischer Philharmonie Reutlingen for the Genuin label; Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman with the Berlin Radio Orchestra for SonyClassical; and Rolf Wallin's percussion concerto Das war schön! with Martin Grubinger and the Oslo Philharmonic for the Ondine label.
Mr. Axelrod currently divides his time between Lucerne and Strasbourg, France and is the proud father of a daughter, Tallulah.
