John Axelrod

JOHN AXELROD

John Axelrod is the rare breed of conductor who excels at classical and, especially, at pops and crossover repertoire. With an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, innovative programming and charismatic performance style, John Axelrod continues to increase his profile as one of today's leading conductors and is sought after by orchestras and opera houses throughout the world. His persuasive baton technique has been applauded by critics as has his communicative skills with musicians and audiences no matter the culture or language.

Mr. Axelrod graduated in 1988 from Harvard University. At the age of 16, John Axelrod was invited to study with Leonard Bernstein; he also studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin in 1996.

Mr. Axelrod has conducted the majority of core repertoire cycles, from Mozart to Mahler, from Beethoven to Bernstein, from Schumann to Shostakovich, and has also proven very popular and effective with this crossover repertoire with orchestras, in particular as the Music Director from 2009-2011 of Hollywood in Vienna with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra and as Music Director of the NHK Jazz at the Metropolitan Theater in Tokyo.

In 1998 he founded OrchestraX in Houston which was a ground-breaking audience development orchestra, performing in non-traditional venues.

OTHER POSTS AND TITLES

From 2014-2020, Maestro Axelrod was the Artistic and Musical Director of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (ROSS). Other positions include Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano LaVerdi from 2011-2017, Music Director of the l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire from 2009-2013, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Theater from 2004- 2009, and Principal Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia from 2001-2009.

GUEST ENGAGEMENTS

Since 2001, Mr. Axelrod has conducted over 175 orchestras around the world, 35 operas and 65 world premieres, and has made multiple returns to the absolute majority, including The Chicago Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, ORF Radio Orchestra Vienna, Tonkunstler Orchestra, HR Frankfurt, NDR Orchestra, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Camerata Salzburg, Filarmonica della Scala, RAI Orchestra Torino, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, RTVE Orchestra Madrid, Belgrade Philharmonic, Grazer Philharmoniker, Prague Radio Symphony, Dortmund Philharmoniker, and at the Enescu, the Schleswig Holstein and Salzburg Festivals.

OPERA ACTIVITY

John Axelrod’s opera activity includes Bernstein's Candide at Théâtre du Châtelet, Teatro alla Scala and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Eugene Onegin at Teatro San Carlo, Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at Rome Opera, Martinu’s Mirandolina at Teatro la Fenice in Venice, the premiere of Fabio Vacchi’s Lo Specchio Magico at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, La Traviata at the Opera di Firenze. For the Lucerne Festival from 2004-2009, he conducted: Rigoletto, The Rake's Progress, Don Giovanni, the Three Penny Opera, Falstaff and Idomeneo. Recently, Mr. Axelrod conducted the premiere of Vittorio Montalti’s Un romano a Marte for the Teatro dell’Opera in Roma and Gianni Schicchi for the opening of 2020 Puccini Festival.

RECORDINGS

Mr. Axelrod has recorded core and contemporary repertoire for Sony Classical, Warner Classics, Ondine, Universal, Naïve and Nimbus. Mr. Axelrod recorded a cycle of Brahms Symphonies combined with Clara Schumann lieder entitled Brahms Beloved onTelarc,with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and accompanying Dame Felicity Lott, Wolfgang Holzmair, Indra Thomas and Nicole Cabell.

EDUCATION

Mr. Axelrod is actively committed to working with young professional musicians, engaged as the Principal Conductor of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, including the 2019 Bernstein at 100 Centennial, and having toured with the Santander Orchestra in Poland, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra to the Salzburg Festival, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, the Accademia della Scala to Muscat, the NordDeutsche Junge Philharmonie in Germany, and the Vienna Jeunesse Orchester in Austria.