Music | Conductor Sakari Oramo is leaving the Sibelius Academy – “I want to focus on my own concerts”

Conductor Sakari Oramo has resigned from his professorship of orchestral and conductor training at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts. He has worked in the position since 2020.

“I have really enjoyed working with young people, but I want to focus on my own concerts. I’m a performing person, and my specialty is being on stage,” Oramo told HS by phone from London on Wednesday.

Among the highlights of his professorship at the Sibelius Academy, which ends next year, Oramo mentions the development of the activities of the conductor class and the new cooperation patterns in orchestra training.

“In the conducting class, we now have much more cooperation with Finnish professional orchestras in the capital and the provinces. In terms of orchestra training, the recent collaboration production with the Royal College of Music was definitely great,” says Oramo.

The symphony orchestras of the Sibelius Academy and the Royal College of Music, a conservatory in London, performed together under Oramo’s direction, first at this year’s Proms festival in London and then at the festival weeks in Helsinki.

On Monday information was published that Oramo’s position as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra has been extended until 2030. The music website tells about it Slipped Disc and BBC Music Magazine’s online news page Classical Music.

58-year-old Oramo has been in the position since 2013. He is the second longest-serving chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra By Adrian Boult after. Boult founded the orchestra in 1930 and left the position 20 years later.

Oramon the contract with the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC has been extended several times. In 2018 Oramo told HSthat he and the BBC considered entering into an “evergreen” contract valid for the time being, but that has not yet been done. This time as well, the contract has a defined end year.

“I find the evergreen contract perhaps a bit too vague. 2030 was chosen because it is the centenary of the orchestra, and I myself will turn 65 then. Then closer, it’s good to see how this would continue,” says Oramo.

Rehearsals for the closing concert of the BBC’s Proms festival, or Last Night of the Proms, are underway in London. This is already the sixth time that Oramo conducts the closing concert of the Proms. The final concert will be held on Saturday, September 14.