Around the Music Festival

Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo has recently extended his contract with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Oramo has been Principal Conductor since 2013. His term extends until the end of the “BBC Proms” in 2023.

Oramo is 54 years old born in Helsinki. He studied violin at the Sibelius Conservatory and participated in the founding of the Avanti Chamber Orchestra at the age of 17. After that, he joined the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and became a concertmaster.

He learned conducting again from 1989 with Jorma Panula, the conductor of the Sibelius Conservatory. Then, in 1993, he conducted the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra as a substitute who canceled due to illness. With that success, he became a member of the Deputy Permanent Conductor.

After that, he gradually devoted himself to conducting activities. In 1999, he became the music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (-2008). In September 2003, he became Principal Conductor of Finnish Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, and after leaving in 2012, he was an Honorary Conductor.

Since 2008, he has also been the Principal Conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Photo：BBC Symphony Orchestra