Andrés Orozco-Estrada & Julia Hagen

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.

Naturalness and warmth, vitality and the courage to take risks: such advantages are regularly mentioned when talking about Julia Hagen’s game. The young cellist from Salzburg, scion of a musical family, convinces as a soloist with orchestra as well as in recital with piano or in numerous chamber music constellations alongside prominent partners. The 27-year-old, who now lives in Vienna, combines technical sovereignty with high artistic standards and a directly communicative attitude towards music-making.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include Julia Hagen’s return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla with Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, performances of the Dvořák Cello Concerto with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, as well as guest appearances with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Sofia Philharmonic. The North American debut is also planned with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Julia Hagen will be heard at the Salzburg Festival 2023 with Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Sonnengesang” as part of the Ouverture spiritual.

Among the diverse chamber music activities are concerts in the trio with Igor Levit and Johan Dalene in London’s Wigmore Hall and at the Heidelberger Frühling, appearances with the Quatuor Arod and the Hagen Quartet and a tour of Japan in the cello duo with Clemens Hagen. The young cellist has longer stays at the Rügen Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Chamber Music Festival, the Risør Festival and Leif Ove Andsnes’ Rosendal Festival in Norway. Julia Hagen also works regularly with the Capuçon brothers. Renaud Capuçon is conductor and violin soloist of the Orchester de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine on tour with Beethoven’s Triple Concerto; she met Gautier at concerts with his “Capucelli” ensemble in Dortmund and Geneva.

Julia Hagen started playing the cello at the age of five. Training with Enrico Bronzi in Salzburg and with Reinhard Latzko in Vienna was followed by formative years in Heinrich Schiff’s class in Vienna from 2013 to 2015 and finally studies with Jens Peter Maintz at the University of the Arts in Berlin. As a Kronberg Academy scholarship holder, Hagen also studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt until 2022. She was a prizewinner at the International Cello Competition in Liezen and the Mazzacurati Cello Competition and was awarded the Hajek Boss Wagner Culture Prize and the Nicolas Firmenich Prize from the Verbier Festival Academy as the best young cellist.

In 2019, together with Annika Treutler, she released her first album with the two cello sonatas by Johannes Brahms on Hänssler Classic. Julia Hagen plays an instrument by Francesco Ruggieri (Cremona, 1684), which is privately made available to her.