MUSIC IS MY LIFE

With an extraordinarily diverse repertoire, innovative programming and charismatic performance style, John Axelrod is widely recognized as one of today's leading conductors and he is sought after by orchestras throughout the world.

In 2023, Maestro Axelrod was elected the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Swiss National Orchestra.  2022, Maestro Axelrod was unanimously elected as the Principal Conductor of the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, with a unique open-ended contract.  2019, Maestro Axelrod was announced as the Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, further establishing 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 (LaVerdi) in Italy, from the 2011-2017 season, 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. 

Since 1996, Mr. Axelrod has conducted nearly 200 orchestras around the world, 35 operas and 65 world premieres. 

Among his long term relationships, invitations and recordings with European orchestras include Berlin’s RSB, NDR Symphony Hamburg (ElbePhilharmonie), Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Bavarian Radio Symphony, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Dortmund Symphoniker, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI Torino, Teatro La Fenice Orchestra in Venice, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestre de Paris,  Belgrade Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, RTVE Orquesta Madrid, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, the Shanghai and Suzhou Symphony Orchestras, Camerata Salzburg and the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, and the Novaiya Rossia, National Philharmonic Orchestra and Mariinsky Orchestra in Russia. 

In Japan, Mr. Axelrod regularly conducts the NHK, Yomiuri Nippon, Tokyo Metropolitan, Sapporo and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras. 

In the USA, Mr. Axelrod has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra among others. 

Sharing music with audiences around the world is his passion.  In 2022, Mr. Axelrod made debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra of India and toured Israel with the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Lezion.  In 2024, he will conduct the Medellin Philharmonic in Colombia and the Minas Gerais Philharmonic in Brazil.

Mr. Axelrod has regularly collaborated with such international artists as Lang Lang, Daniel Hope, Fazil Say, Thomas Hampson, Martin Grubinger, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Gabriela Montero, Enrico Dindo, Vadim Guzman, David Garrett, Khatia Buniatishvili, Enrico Dindo, Nadja Michael, Jan Lisiecki, Teodora Gheorghiu, Albrecht Mayer, Rinat Shaham, Andreas Blau, José Maria Gallardo del Rey, and Wallis Giunta.

He has recorded core and contemporary repertoire for Sony Classical, Warner Classics, Naxos, 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 Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and accompanying Dame Felicity Lott, Wolfgang Holzmair, Indra Thomas and Nicole Cabell.

His recently released recording of both versions of Robert Schumann's 4th Symphony, Op. 120, on Orchid Classics, the first time both versions have been included on one recording, has been nominated for a 2024 ICMA Best Orchestral Recording. 

Mr. Axelrod is actively committed to working with young professional musicians, engaged as the Principal Conductor in 2016 and 2018 (Bernstein 100) 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 NordDeutsche Junge Philharmonie in Germany, and the Vienna Jeunesse Orchester in Austria.

In 2020, Maestro Axelrod created CMO. Conductors Masterclass Online, now teaching 86 students worldwide, and offering free repertoire masterclasses with guest conductors, such as Leonard Slatkin, JoAnn Falletta, Carlo Rizzi and many more great maestros.  

Since 2022, Maestro Axelrod led the Bucharest Music Institute Masterclass and Competition, and, since 2023, has led masterclasses and conducted concerts with the concertmaster diploma candidates at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona. 

Bernstein said there is no more noble act than teaching. That's why Maestro Axelrod continues to share his lessons learned and experience gained  for student, amateur or professional conductors on his conductors masterclass online website. Click below to find out more.

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 premiere of Vittorio Montalti’s Un Romano a Marte at the Rome Opera, Martinu’s Mirandolina 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 returned in 2021 to conduct a new production of Turandot, directed by Daniele Abbado.

Mr. Axelrod has also authored three published books, Wie Großartige Music Ensteht  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, www.IamBacchus.com

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 he made his professional debut as assistant conductor for Parisfal at the Bayreuth Festival.