Bucharest, April 1, 2022
Bucharest Music Institute (BMI) and Bucharest Symphony Orchestra presents Maestro John Axelrod as President of Jury for the Edition IV of the International Conducting Competition and Professor for the International Conducting Masterclass with the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra: “A Conductor’s Masterclass to a Winning Mindset, Technique & Expression”.
Scheduled for July 14 to July 20, 2022, the events will be held in Bucharest, Romania – National University of Music.
“After two years of unforeseen and unwanted music break it is time to level up and make everything possible to facilitate the meet-up of aspiring conductors, professional conductors, the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra and Maestro John Axelrod together as one, in a single place: the BMI International Conducting Masterclass & Competition events in Bucharest, Romania”, says Catalin Opritoiu, Founder & President of the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra Association.
Post-Covid live events can now be realised with Masterclasses, the Competition and the Winners Awards Concert, featuring the world class Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, and the core repertoire of Beethoven’s Symphony 5 & 7, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture and so much more.
There are five premieres this year at the BMI – Edition IV events:
- renowned conductor John Axelrod joins as Pesident of Jury and Professor,
- the BMI partnership with CMO – Conducting Masterclass Online Protégée Prize,
- the BMI Scholarship awarded to 5 students upon video submission,
- the winning conductors gets the chance to conduct the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra right in the Winners Awards Gala Concert,
- the Live Streaming All Access Pass to Masterclass / Competition / Winners Awards Gala Concert.
As for the previous editions, the Masterclass students will get podium time to conduct on a daily basis the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, a string quartet, to attend and receive valuable training from renowned conductor and professor, John Axelrod. Every Masterclass candidate is a winner by just participating in the BMI International Masterclass & Competition in Bucharest. 5 students will receive the benefit or 100% reimbursement of the participation fee. Every Competition has the potential to become a winner and only the first three prizes get the chance to conduct the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra at the Winners Awards Gala Concert.
Live Streaming All Access Pass is the new package that is offered to anyone that would love to apply to the Masterclass, the Competition and the Winners Awards Gala Concert but, due to distance, financial or health issues, are not able to attend live but holds an internet connection and a email account . The cost of the online pass is 150 EUR per user/device and by May 1, we created a promo campaign for those that cannot afford even this price and can buy the package for only 100 EUR per user/device.
Download the BMI Edition IV Brochure
Partners
Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, National University of Music Bucharest, CMO – Conducting Masterclass Online
About John Axelrod
Principal Guest Conductor, City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Japan
“John Axelrod is a highly imaginative and dynamic musician, whose rich musicological background and historical insights combine with intellectual drive and charismatic enthusiasm for people and for life, to get probing, rigorous and richly characterized interpretations.” Remy Franck, Pizzicato
Since 1996, Mr. Axelrod has conducted more than
175 orchestras, 35 operas and 60 world premieres. It is evident that John Axelrod has established a profile and position as one of today’s leading conductors and is
sought after by orchestras and opera houses throughout the world. His extraordinarily diverse repertoire, innova- tive programming, probing interpretations and charismatic performance style have been praised and recognized by both audiences and critics. In 2020, Maestro Axelrod received the Special Achievement Award from the International Classical Music Awards for his outstanding contributions and interpretations.
In 2019, Maestro Axelrod was announced as the Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, reinforcing his global profile. In 2014, Maestro Axelrod became the Artistic and Musical Director of the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (ROSS). His contract was unanimously extended through the 2019-2020 season.
Other titled positions have included Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “Giuseppe” Verdi (LaVerdi) in Italy, from the 2001-2017 season, Music Director of the NHK Jazz at the Metropolitan Theater from 2015-2017, Music Director of the l’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire in France from 2009-2013, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Theater in Switzerland from 2004-2009, Music Director of “Hollywood in Vienna” in Austria, from 2009-2011, with the ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra, and in 2001-2009, as Principal Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia, in Krakow, Poland.
Among his long term relationships, invitations and recordings with European orchestras include Berlin’s RSB, NDR Symphony Hamburg (ElbePhilharmonie), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Dortmund Symphoniker, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Teatro La Fenice Orchestra in Venice, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre de Paris, Danish Radio Symphony Orches- tra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, RTVE Orquesta Madrid, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, the Shanghai and Suzhou Symphony Orchestras, Camerata Salzburg and the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra in Russia. In Japan, Mr. Axelrod regularly conducts the NHK and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras. In the USA, Mr. Axelrod has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra among others. Maestro Axelrod recently debuted to great acclaim with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Important festival engagements include the Enescu Festival, The Salzburg Festival, the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, The Lucerne Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Festival, The Ravello Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Mr. Axelrod continued his long relationship with Sinfonietta Cracovia, recently conducting the 2020 memorial concert in memory of the composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
John Axelrod’s opera activity includes Bernstein’s Candide at Théâtre du Châtelet, Teatro alla Scala and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Eugene Onegin at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and the pre- miere of Vittorio Montalti’s Un Romano a Marte at the Rome Opera, Martinu’s Mi- randolina at Teatro la Fenice in Venice and both la Traviata and the premiere of Fabio Vacchi’s Lo Specchio Magico at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. For the Lucerne Festival from 2004-2009, he conducted: Rigoletto, The Rake’s Progress, Don Giovanni, the Three Penny Opera, Falstaff and Idomeneo. Maestro Axelrod was expressly invited to open the 2020 Puccini Festival, conducting Gianni Schicchi, in the first staged opera performance in Europe post Covid-19 and re- turned in 2021 to conduct a new production of Turandot, directed by Daniele Abbado.
Mr. Axelrod has regularly collaborated with such international artists as Lang Lang, Daniel Hope, Fazil Say, Thomas Hampson, Martin Grubinger, Patricia Kopatchin- skaya, Gabriela Montero, Enrico Dindo, Vadim Guzman, David Garrett, Khatia Buniatishvili, Enrico Dindo, Nadja Michael, Jan Lisiecki, Albrecht Mayer, Rinat Sha-ham, Andreas Blau, José Maria Gallardo del Rey, and Wallis Giunta, among many others. He has recorded core and contemporary repertoire for Sony Classical, Warner Classics, Ondine, Universal, Naïve and Nimbus. Mr. Axelrod also released a cycle of Brahms Symphonies combined with Clara Schumann lieder entitled Brahms Beloved on Telarc, produced by Grammy winner Michael Fine, with Or- chestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and accompanying Dame Felicity Lott, Wolfgang Holzmair, Indra Thomas and Nicole Cabell.
“One of John Axelrod’s strengths is the energy he brings to live performances, based on his conviction that each opportunity to make music is a chance to bring about a better world.” Remy Franck
Mr. Axelrod is actively committed to working with young professional musicians, en- gaged as the Principal Conductor in 2016 and 2018 (Bernstein 200) of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo and having toured with the Santander Orchestra in Poland, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra to the Salzburg Festival, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Italy, the Accademia della Scala to Muscat, the Nord- Deutsche Junge Philharmonie in Germany, and the Vienna Jeunesse Orchester in Austria.
Since 2013, Mr. Axelrod is also founder of CultureALL Association in Switzerland, which collaborates with UNESCO, commissions composers, develops young musicians and provides access to cultural events and patrimony for underserved and underprivileged members of the community at large.
Maestro Axelrod teaches conducting to students worldwide via his Conductors Masterclass Online. He has also authored three published books, Wie Großartige Musik Entsteht for the Henschel Verlag and Lenny and Me: Conducting Bernstein’s Symphonies for Naxos, and Big Notes: How a Stradivarius Makes Money and Music for Clink Street Publishing, and he maintains a personal blog about wine and music.
Mr. Axelrod graduated in 1988 from Harvard University. Trained personally by Leonard Bernstein in 1982, he also studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Musin in 1996 and was mentored by Christoph Eschenbach from 1997 until 2000 when we made his professional debut at assistant conductor for Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival.
About BMI
Bucharest Music Institute (BMI) provides the best experience in Romania with the required resources that helps the aspiring masters of orchestral direction to achieve their goal, to learn how to conduct an orchestra. And much more.
Attending to our Masterclasses, you will learn to develop a winning mindset, the essential technique, the proper skills, the expression and furthermore, the necessary support for a career in orchestral conducting.
About Bucharest Symphony Orchestra
Established in 2007, the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra represents a first class Romanian ensemble.
It was founded by three ambitious musicians, and features the most valuable artists musicians in Romania. Wishing to offer music lovers the opportunity to come into contact with quality music, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra has developed original and innovative musical concepts, joined under the SalutCULTURA! season.
The reputation and recognition came along with the impressive series of concerts and events held both in traditional concert halls, outdoor and in less conventional places. Bucharest Symphony Orchestra tackles a wide range of repertoire, ranging from classical music to film music, pop / rock and crossover. The Bucharest Symphony Orchestra mission is to promote music excellence and to attract young people to the concert halls.
A truly official Romanian Cultural Ambassador, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra performed in 2013 and further, in 2017, as the first Romanian orchestra in seven of the most fabulous concert halls in South America, such as: Teatro Colón and Teatro Coliseo Palazzo Italia in Buenos Aires, Teatro El Circulo in Rosario/Argentina; Sala São Paulo in São Paulo/ Brazilia, Teatro El Occitane in Trancoso/Brazilia, Corpartes 660 in Santiago/Chile, Gran Teatro Nacional din Lima/ Peru and Teatro Solís in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Since 2021, Asociatia Orchestra Simfonică București holds a public utility institution statute.
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