Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Energy, elegance and esprit – that is what distinguishes Andrés Orozco-Estrada as a musician. From September 2014 to July 2021, Andrés Orozco-Estrada was chief conductor of the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and said goodbye in June 21 with a big concert in the Alte Oper, about which the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote: “The picture of a balance between human impeccability and communicative passion and the highest level of professionalism. An orchestra, one understood, wants to enjoy its work and at the same time make serious musical progress, and of course that sounds easier than it is. But it is precisely the connection between the joy of dancing and the unconditional search for perfection that clearly distinguishes the Colombian’s work.” June, 2021.
He was music director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra from 2014-2022 and chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020-2022). Andrés Orozco-Estrada regularly conducts Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchester National de France, as well such as major US orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He conducted successful concerts and opera performances at the Berlin and Vienna State Opera and at the Salzburg Festival.
After his farewell concerts in Houston, during which he conducted Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Orozco-Estrada will close the 2021/22 season with his Filarmonica Joven and a major European tour. The orchestra has performed at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Wiener Konzerthaus, among others. In the coming season, guest conducting will take him to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Orchester National de France and the Israel Philharmonic.
He will also return to the podium of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin State Opera, where he will conduct the revival of La Traviata.
A tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe will take him to the Canary Islands and to the Salzburg Mozart Week. A concert week and a master class for conductors with the Orquesta Sinfónica Freixenet de la Escuela Reina Sofía are also planned. His CD releases at Pentatone attracted a great deal of attention: with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra he presented recordings of Stravinsky’s Feuervogel and Sacre du Printemps, which were praised by critics as “bewitching” (Gramophone). The concert recordings of Richard Strauss’ operas Salome and Elektra also enjoyed great success. He recorded a Dvořák cycle with the Houston Symphony Orchestra – according to Pizzicato, a “vital Dvořák with warm colours”. In addition, all Brahms and Mendelssohn symphonies are available on sound carrier with him. Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical education by playing the violin. At the age of 15 he received his first conducting lessons. In 1997 he went to study in Vienna, where he was admitted to the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw) in the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, a student of the legendary Hans Swarowsky. Orozco-Estrada will take up his professorship in orchestral conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts on October 1st.