Violinist and conductor John Storgårds was born in Helsinki, Finland on October 20, 1963. He studied violin at the Sibelius Academy located in his hometown. He then continued his training in Israel with Chaim Taub. As a founding member of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, he found himself leading the ensemble from the violin section and became more interested in conducting. He was then invited to conduct the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra, which piqued his interest even more. He then went back to the Sibelius Academy and studied conducting between 1992 and 1997. John Storgårds became the Artistic Director for the Chamber Orchestra of Lapland in 1996, which lead to his invitation to become Principal Guest Conductor for the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003. Five years later, he became Chief Conductor for the orchestra, a position he held until 2015. He also served as Chief Conductor for the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra between 2006 and 2009. He has also conducted many summer festivals as well as working with orchestras outside of Finland including the BBC Philharmonic in England and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada. John Storgårds has issued many recorded including Aho: Rituals (2009), Korngold: Symphony in F Sharp Major - Tänzchen Im Alten Stil (2011), Vagn Holmboe: Chamber Symphonies (2012), Wallin: Manyworlds (2015), Abrahamsen: Schnee (2022), and Weinberg: Dawn - Symphony No. 12 (2023). With the BBC Philharmonic, he recorded symphonic cycles of Antheil (2017-2019), then Shostakovich, including Symphonies No. 11, 12 "The Year 1917", 13 "Baby Yar", 14 and No. 15 (2020-2024), then No. 1 and No. 3 "The First of May" in 2025.
