MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CHIEF CONDUCTOR, LUZERNER SINFONIE ORCHESTER AND THEATER PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR, SINFONIETTA CRACOVIA FOUNDER AND CONDUCTOR LAUREATE, ORCHESTRA X
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 young conductors and is sought after by orchestras throughout the world. In summer 2008, he will make his debut at the Bregenz Festival conducting Krenek's Kehraus in co-production with the Luzerner Theater, and will make his debut with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra. In the 2008-09 season, he debuts with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI of Torino, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Orchestra Verdi in Milano, Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, Komische Oper in Berlin, and makes return engagements with the Dresden Philharmonie, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra 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.
Highlights of Mr. Axelrod's most recent seasons included debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, at Vienna's Musikverein with the Vienna Radio Symphony, Gurzenich-Orchester Köln and with Het Brabant Orkest in Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw; return engagements with Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra and Leipzig Opera, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.
As a guest conductor, John Axelrod has worked with the Berlin's Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic (at the Hollywood Bowl), Orchestre National de Lyon, Salzburg Mozarteum, NDR RadioPhilharmonie of Hannover, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, Stuttgart's SWR Symphony, the Hungarian National Philharmonic
His opera activity include the premiere performances of Bernstein's Candide at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet and Milano's Teatro alla Scala. 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.
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, 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. 2008-09 season
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