Taavi Oramo

Conductor

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“The multi-talented Taavi Oramo is only taking his first steps as a conductor but it’s immediately clear that another Finnish conductor is on his way to an international career”
(Helsingin Sanomat)

Artist in Residence: Tapiola Sinfonietta (2019/20)
Artistic Director: VocalEspoo Festival (from 2020)

Taavi Oramo’s professional conducting career was launched with two short-notice jump-ins during the 2017/18 season with Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra for which he received glowing reviews: “he shaped the piece’s passion, rhetoric, sighs and storms with singing softeness and sensitivity” said the Helsingen Sanomat on his performance of Haydn Symphony No.49 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The newspaper also praised his performance in Tapiola “The multi-talented Taavi Oramo is only taking his first steps as a conductor but it’s immediately clear that another Finnish conductor is on his way to an international career”.

The 2019/20 season sees Oramo take up two new appointments: as Artist-in Residence with Tapiola Sinfonietta and Artistic Director of Vocal Espoo for 2020. Tapiola Sinfonietta commented: “Oramo is a wide-ranging musician: a conductor, clarinettist and singer, besides being involved in electronic music. His creative and experimental readings of orchestral music, provide a hint of what orchestral music might evolve into in the future”. Defying labels, Oramo is exceptionally musical, intelligent and thoughtful – very much a collaborator who is building a very eclectic repertoire from mainstream to the most current contemporary music.

During 2019/20 Oramo will make debuts with the Finnish National Opera Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra, BIT20 Ensemble Bergen, Munich Chamber Orchestra in 2019/20, Kymi Sinfonietta, Pori Sinfonietta and the Tampere Philharmonic and he returns to the Helsinki Philharmonic in a concert at part of BOZAR’s Nordic Festival with the legendary bass Matti Salminen and to the Turku Philharmonic.

taavi-oramo-6261-07-photo-tero-ahonen-hires — Taavi Oramo ©Tero Ahonen

A major creative outlet has been Oramo’s experimental electroacoustic group, Tölöläb, which combines woodwinds with live electronics to create music uninhibited by genre and conventional expectations. Recent performances with Tapiola Sinfonietta, with Oramo on the podium, combined live improvised interludes interspersing the movements of Webern’s Symphony Op.21 and Magnus Lindberg’s Jubliees. Producing concerts in venues ranging from the grittiest bars and techno parties to sacred spaces, in 2018 Tölöläb collaborated with experimental jazz group Elifantree to compose and record an album at Pekka Kuusisto’s ‘Our Festival’.

As a singer Oramo has focused on contemporary and early music. In 2018 he sang tenor arias in St John Passion with Finnish Baroque Orchestra and Lahti Symphony Orchestra, and featured in a staged production of Monteverdi Vespers produced by Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and Zodiak Dance Theater. As a clarinetist he has performed as soloist with orchestras in Kuopio, Joensuu and Lappeenranta as well as Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and contemporary music group New Times Ensemble.

Oramo studied conducting at the Panula Academy under Jorma Panula and at Sibelius Academy under professors Atso Almila and Hannu Lintu. He is a founding member, former executive director and Chairman of the Board at Eloa Culture Company, which produces multidisciplinary chamber music events.

Schönberg: Chamber Symphony No.1 excerpts, Tapiola Sinfonietta © Taavi Oramo

Schönberg: Chamber Symphony No.1, Tapiola Sinfonietta © Taavi Oramo

“The recreation of Beethoven’s famous concert was a great victory for Taavi Oramo.”

(Helsingin Sanomat, November 2019)

“The four hour concert was twice the length of a normal one. It was a great challenge for Oramo and an even greater success. Oramo, extremely musical, conducted calmly and securely and created an intimate and sensitive connection with the players and singers. (…) [In Beethoven’s Mass in C Major] Oramo united the soloists, choir and orchestra into a colourful symphonic whole. ”

(Hannu-Ilari Lampila, Helsingin Sanomat, November 2019)

“Taavi Oramo could have had a distinguished career as a clarinetist or at least as well as a singer but clearly a career as a conducted seemed like a more attractive option. And why not? His voice and his clarinet will be useful in the future and Oramo is so obviously gifted as a conductor that it would have been a real pity if that path had not been explored seriously. (…) From Friday’s concert in Tapiola it appeared clear that the technical side is one of Oramo’s greatest strengths. If I were an orchestral musician I would love to play under his extremely clear, mannerism-free and altogether natural lead.”

(Mats Liljeroos, Hufvudstadsbladet, September 2019)

“There are many reasons to predict that Taavi Oramo will be the next young Finnish conductor to rise to international acclaim. (…) Although his gestures are generally soft, when necessary he is more assertive and gets fantastic rises from the orchestra. (…) [In Scriabin’s piano concerto] in addition to being a conductor Oramo is a clarinetist and a singer and he has the skill to make an orchesta sing with passion. (…) [In Arnold Schönberg’s Chamber Symphony] Oramo’s work in the complex structures of the piece was precise and strict but at the same time breathing and lively. ”

(Hannu-Ilari Lampila, Helsingin Sanomat, September 2019)

“The multi-talented Taavi Oramo is only taking his first steps as a conductor but it’s immediately clear that another Finnish conductor is on his way to an international career. Oramo was invited on just a few days’ notice to jump in for Mario Venzago. Even so the repertoire including the challenging Wennäkoski was perfectly under control. (…) The strings of the Tapiola Sinfonietta were a perfect ensemble to interpret Oramo’s visions of Verklärte Nacht by Schönberg. Romantic conventions were broken for a challengingly fresh interpretation.”

(Annamari Salmela, Helsingin Sanomat, November 2018)

“Jubilees by Magnus Lindberg sounded more full-blooded, flowing and dynamic than the recording conducted by the composer himself. Oramo’s interpretation had graphicness, accurately directed crispness and lush sensualness. With the warm support of Tapiola Sinfonietta’s players Taavi Oramo proved that his talent carries.”

(Jukka Isopuro, Helsingin Sanomat, October 2018)

“[Jumping in for James Gaffigan] Taavi Oramo conducted Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra calmly and firmly. [Oramo] got to prove his versatility in the three completely different works performed. (…) The collaboration between Conrad Tao and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oramo went well. In Oramo a firm calmness is combined with accuracy and suppleness. Gestures are economical.”

(Hannu-Ilari Lampila, Helsingin Sanomat, April 2018)