In 2014/15, Andrés Orozco-Estrada took over the position of Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and also became Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. In September 2015, the London Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him to the post of Principal Guest Conductor. In 2021/22 he will take over the position of Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. However, he will begin his connection with the orchestra a year earlier, in 2020/21, as Principal Conductor Designate.
Orozco-Estrada conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchestre National de France, as well as some of the most renowned American orchestras from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. With outstanding success he has also conducted both concerts and opera performances at the Glyndebourne and the Salzburg Festivals as well as at the Styriarte Festival.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Mozartwoche Salzburg and a new production of Verdi’s „Rigoletto“ at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin. He also conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his debut at the BBC Proms. He returns to the Staatskapelle Dresden and to the Mahler Cham-ber Orchestra as Guest Conductor and presents a concert performance of Richard Strauss’ “Elektra” in Frankfurt and Dortmund on the podium of his Frankfurt Radio Symphony. In December, he takes over the traditional New Year’s concerts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as Principal Conductor Designate of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
He has also been invited to re-join both the Chicago Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition, Andrés Orozco-Estrada is continually committed to support young musicians. He conducts a concert with the Karajan-Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and leads a joint education project of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, and subsequently takes the orchestra on tour.
His releases with Pentatone have attracted considerable attention. With the Frankfurt Radio Symphony he has recorded Stravinsky’s “Firebird” and “Rite of Spring” which were hailed by the critics as “hauntingly beautiful” (Gramophone). Amongst his most recent releases are the “Alpine Symphony” which forms part of his Richard Strauss Cycle, again with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, which won him the praise of being “a fine Straussian” by Gramophone magazine, and his Dvořák-Cycle with the Houston Symphony, which “Pizzicato” considers to be a “zestful Dvořák with warm colours”. In addition, he has recorded all Brahms and Mendelssohn symphonies.
Born in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin. At the age of 15, he received his first conducting lessons and in 1997 he moved to Vienna in order to study at the re-nowned University of Music and Performing Arts with Uroš Lajovic, himself a pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky. Orozco-Estrada currently lives in Vienna.
As of March 2019
