Sakari Oramo

Sakari Oramo is among the best known and most heavily recorded Finnish conductors on the international scene. He has received high praise for his interpretations of Finnish music, including the music of Sibelius, Kaija Saariaho, and Magnus Lindberg, and has championed the music of British composers such as John Foulds. Oramo is the conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Oramo was born in Helsinki on October 26, 1965. He trained as a violinist and, from his teens, played with the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra for seven years. He also performed as a member of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, eventually becoming the concertmaster. From 1989 to 1992, he studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula. He made his conducting debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony in a performance of the Brahms First Symphony in 1993 and enjoyed such success that he was appointed the orchestra’s associate principal conductor that same year. Among his earliest recordings with the orchestra was a 1995 Ondine album of works by Uuno Klami. In 1998, Oramo became the principal conductor and artistic director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and assumed the post of music director the following year; he held these positions until 2008. With the City of Birmingham Symphony, he was a prominent leader of the Elgar 150th birthday celebrations in 2007 and received an Elgar Medal for his advancement of the composer’s music in 2008. During his tenure with the City of Birmingham Symphony, Oramo championed the music of little-known English composer John Foulds and conducted works by a wide array of British composers, including Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Walton. In 2003, he was elevated to principal conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony, where he remained until 2012. Oramo co-founded the Kokkola Opera in 2004 and served as principal conductor until the company closed in 2018. In 2005, he recorded Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony, an effort that drew much critical acclaim. In 2008, Oramo became the chief conductor and artistic advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, concluding his tenure there following the 2020-2021 season and taking the role of conductor laureate. Among Oramo’s more lauded recordings with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic is the Nobel Prize Concert 2010, issued in 2011 on Accentus, featuring works by Beethoven, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky. Following a successful guest conducting appearance in 2011, Oramo assumed the post of chief conductor and artistic director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2015. Oramo was featured on several albums in 2019, including the Chandos album Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite; Spring Song; Suite from Belshazzar's Feast, conducting the BBC Symphony, and an Ondine album of horn concertos with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, featuring Markus Maskuniitty. Oramo has continued his rigorous recording pace in the 2020s, leading the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on a recording of Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto with pianist Sunwook Kim in 2023. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke