Winner of the 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year award, Sakari Oramo is Chief Conductor of both the BBC Symphony and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras, and Principal Conductor of the West Coast Kokkola Opera and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. Between 1998 and 2008 he was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and after a decade as Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, he has now served as their Honorary Conductor since 2012.

Highlights of the 2017/18 season include numerous concerts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra which includes a focus on HK Gruber’s compositions and a festival of Stravinsky’s music. He will also continue to champion the promotion of new and rarely performed works with the BBC Symphony Orchestra – this season he will conduct the UK premieres of Hillborg Concerto for Violin No.2 with Lisa Batiashvili, and Aarre Merikanto’s Ekho with Anu Komsi. To celebrate 100 years of Finnish Independence, he has programmed a complete Sibelius symphony cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and will also lead a day featuring the works of conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Previous seasons’ highlights have included concerts with the Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. During the summer of 2017, he conducted several Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, including the Last Night of the Proms (having previously done so in 2014 and 2016); and also with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (and Renée Fleming) as part of a European tour.