Sakari Oramo
A guest conductor at the highest international level and a prolific recording artist, Sakari Oramo’s performances combine crystalline structural cohesion with authority, elegance and passion.
Now in his 12th season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramo continues to captivate audiences in a season of intelligently and innovatively programmed concerts which highlight lesser-known compositional voices, as well as showcasing classic masterpieces. Mahler’s Symphony No.9 opens a season which also includes works by Thomas Adès, Mozart, Cecilia Damström, Beethoven, Lindberg, Stravinsky, Korngold and Bartók. Oramo returns to Gürzenich-Orchester Köln as their Artistic Partner for concerts of Strauss, Adès and Sibelius. Other guest engagements include returns to Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester.
Notable engagements from previous seasons include those with Berlin Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Throughout his career, Oramo has held numerous prestigious positions; Music Director of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1998-2008, Chief Conductor of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2003-12, Principal Conductor of West Coast Kokkola Opera from 2004-18, Chief Conductor of Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008-2021, and Artistic Director of Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra from 2013-19. An accomplished violinist, Oramo was originally concertmaster of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Oramo continues to champion new and rarely performed works with BBC Symphony Orchestra, and has given dozens of world, UK, and Finnish premieres, and worked with many of the most outstanding composers of our time. Oramo is a regular conductor at the BBC Proms – during the summer of 2025, he presented several Proms with BBC Symphony Orchestra including The First Night of the Proms, performing Sibelius’ Violin concerto with Lisa Batiashvili and crowning the evening with Vaughan Williams’ little known oratorio Sancta civitas.
In 2025, Chandos released the second volume of Oramo and the BBC Symphony’s exploration of the works of Grażyna Bacewicz, following an acclaimed reading of Symphonies No.3 and 4 in 2023. Other entries in Oramo’s extensive discography include recordings of Dora Pejačević’s Piano Concerto and Symphony in F-sharp minor with BBC Symphony Orchestra, works by Ravel with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Rued Langgaard’s Symphony No.1 with Berliner Philharmoniker. He has also recorded Sibelius’s complete symphonies with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Nielsen’s and Schumann’s complete symphonies with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and many works by Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg with various orchestras. Successes across his catalogue include BBC Music Magazine’s Orchestra Award for Nielsen: Symphonies Nos.1 and 3 with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, a Gramophone Award in 2019 for Laangaard: Symphonies No. 2 and 6 with Wiener Philharmoniker and soprano Anu Komsi, and a 2020 International Classical Music Award for Busoni’s Piano Concerto with Boston Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Gerstein.
