John Axelrod
Encyclopedia
John Neal Axelrod is an American conductor. Axelrod is currently Conductor and Music Director of l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
, based in Nantes and Angers, France; and, from the 2011/12 season the Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi" also known as "laVerdi". He is also Music Director of "Hollywood In Vienna" Gala Concerts with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (www.hollywoodinvienna.com). He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia
. At the age of 16 he was accepted as a student by Leonard Bernstein
, during the premiere of his final opera, A Quiet Place, for Houston Grand Opera. Axelrod graduated cum laude in 1984 from St. John's School and went on to Harvard University
, where he completed a Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1988. After a summer jazz course in 1985 he continued his jazz piano and improvisation studies with Craig Najjar at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Axelrod moved to Los Angeles following his studies, working as an A&R Executive for Atlantic and RCA/BMG Records until 1991. He worked briefly as an artist manager for Iron John Management, started his own production company, "Ivy League Records", and eventually became Director of the Robert Mondavi
Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa, California in 1994. After deciding to return to music in 1995, he studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia with Ilya Musin. In 1996 Axelrod founded Houston's former Orchestra X where he served as Artistic Director and Conductor. He also studied with then Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach
and became his assistant in 1999 at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and for Parsifal, at Bayreuth in 2000.
In April, 2009 Axelrod was elected as Music Director of the l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (ONPL), based in Nantes
and Angers, France. He assumed the title of Music Director Designé with the 2009–2010 season, and began his full duties as Music Director for the 2010–2011 season.
In July 2009, Axelrod was appointed Music Director of the Hollywood in Vienna
Gala Concert with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. The first of his concert performances was on October 14, 2009, in the Konzerthaus of Vienna.
From the 2011/12 season, he is the Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi" also known as "laVerdi".
, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Polish National Radio Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
in St. Petersburg, at Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus with the Vienna Radio Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestra
Köln, Berlin's Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lyon
, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
, and the Salzburg Mozarteum. In Asia: the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
and Kyoto Symphony; and in North America: the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
and Toronto Symphony. He has also been a regular guest of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
, Orchestre de Paris
, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR Radio-Philharmonie of Hanover, Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic
, Philadelphia Orchestra
, and the Chicago Symphony.
During the summer of 2009 Axelrod made a unique European and North American tour at the invitation of Chinese pianist Lang Lang
and legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock
, performing in such venues as the Montreux Jazz Festival
Arena di Verona, Royal Albert Hall
, the Ruhr Piano Festival, Rotterdam North Sea Jazz, the Ravenna Festival
, the Ravinia Festival, the Mann Center, Massey Hall
, and the Hollywood Bowl
.
In 2010, Axelrod, as Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, recorded with Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba
works by Chausson and Ravel for Warner Classics, released in 2011.
In 2011, Axelrod made to critical acclaim his Salzburg Festival debut with percussionist Martin Grubinger in a reprise of the marathon Concert they performed in 2006 in Vienna's Musikverein
Soloists whom Axelrod often works with include: Julia Fischer
, Veronique Gens
, Martin Grubinger, Thomas Hampson, Dietrich Henschel, Daniel Hope
, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Lang Lang, Sabine Meyer
, Fazil Say
, Rachel Kolly d'Alba
, Lilya Zilberstein
, and Ramón Vargas
.
Axelrod has premiered many new works by such composers as Wolfgang Rihm (Sotte Voce II), Kaija Saariaho (Nymphea Reflection), Gabriel Prokoviev (Remix of Beethoven's 9th for electronica and Orchestra), Fazil Say (1001 Nights in a Harem), Marco Stroppa (Rittratti Senza Volto), Michael Gordon (Grey, Pink, Yellow), Karim al-Zand (7th Voyage of Sindbad), Anthony K. Brandt (Express), and Wojciech Kilar (September Symphony).
(directed by Robert Carsen) at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet
and Milano's Teatro alla Scala and the new production of Krenek's Kehraus um St. Stephan at the Bregenzer Festspiele
. In his past seasons at the Luzerner Theater he conducted new productions of Kaiser von Atlantis (for the Lucerne Festival), Rigoletto
, Rake's Progress (for the Lucerne Festival), Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Dreigroschenoper (for the Lucerne Festival), Evgeni Onegin
, Idomeneo
(for the Lucerne Festival), Falstaff
and Don Giovanni
(for the Lucerne Festival). In 2009, he also conducted Tristan and Isolde (directed by Olivier Py), for Angers/Nantes Opera.
's newly-commissioned piano concerto "Sotto Voce II" (together with Sotto Voce I) with pianist Nicolas Hodges
and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester on the Kairos
Label; Fazil Say
's new violin concerto "1001 Nights in a Harem" with Patricia Kopatchinskaya and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester on Naive; 2 discs featuring works by Franz Schreker
and his students Ernst Krenek
and Julius Burger, and a live recording from the 2006 Lucerne Festival of Bernstein's "Third Symphony
" ('Kaddish'), Schoenberg's "Survivor from Warsaw", and Weill's "Berliner Requiem", all with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester for the Nimbus label; Dvořák's Ninth Symphony with the Württemburgischer Philharmonie Reutlingen for the Genuin label; Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman
with the Berlin Radio Orchestra for SonyClassical; and Rolf Wallin
's percussion concerto "Das war schön!" with Martin Grubinger and the Oslo Philharmonic for the Ondine label.
Recent DVDs include: the 2007 Emmy Award winning BBC Holocaust: A Musical Memorial, for which Axelrod and Sinfoneitta Cracovia were the first orchestra to perform on the grounds of Auschwitz since its liberation; the 2008 ARTE production of Die Nacht, featuring Symphonie Fantastique
and Sinfonietta Cracovia, and the 2008 Bregenzer Festpiele production of Krenek's opera, Kerhaus um St. Stephan. Axelrod has also released a recording of his own compositions, How Do I Love Thee, Love Songs for the Romantic at Heart, on the Marquis Classics Label.
Magazine and was named one of Houston's 25 Power People by Inside Houston magazine. He was also a member of Leadership Houston Class XVIII, and is a member of the Franco-American Foundation.
and Strasbourg
, France, and Houston, Texas, and has a daughter. His interests include Italian cuisine, wine, and travel.
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
The Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire is a French symphony orchestra based in Angers and Nantes, France. The orchestra receives support from the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire....
, based in Nantes and Angers, France; and, from the 2011/12 season the Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi" also known as "laVerdi". He is also Music Director of "Hollywood In Vienna" Gala Concerts with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (www.hollywoodinvienna.com). He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Cracovia
Early life
Axelrod was born in Houston, Texas on March 28, 1966. From the age of 5 Axelrod studied piano with Jacquelyn Harbachick and Roberto EyzaguirreRoberto Eyzaguirre
Roberto Eyzaguirre is a Peruvian-American classical pianist and famed piano pedagogue. He was a longtime friend and pupil of the legendary 20th century virtuoso pianist Claudio Arrau, who had studied under a pupil of Franz Liszt. He is notable for his colorful playing and "big tone".With Arrau's...
. At the age of 16 he was accepted as a student by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, during the premiere of his final opera, A Quiet Place, for Houston Grand Opera. Axelrod graduated cum laude in 1984 from St. John's School and went on to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he completed a Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1988. After a summer jazz course in 1985 he continued his jazz piano and improvisation studies with Craig Najjar at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Axelrod moved to Los Angeles following his studies, working as an A&R Executive for Atlantic and RCA/BMG Records until 1991. He worked briefly as an artist manager for Iron John Management, started his own production company, "Ivy League Records", and eventually became Director of the Robert Mondavi
Robert Mondavi
Robert Gerald Mondavi was a leading California vineyard operator whose technical improvements and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi aggressively promoted labeling wines varietally rather than...
Wine and Food Center in Costa Mesa, California in 1994. After deciding to return to music in 1995, he studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia with Ilya Musin. In 1996 Axelrod founded Houston's former Orchestra X where he served as Artistic Director and Conductor. He also studied with then Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach
Christoph Eschenbach , born February 20, 1940, Breslau, Germany is a German-born pianist and conductor. He currently holds positions in Washington, D.C. as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and music director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.-Early...
and became his assistant in 1999 at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and for Parsifal, at Bayreuth in 2000.
Conductor
In 2004, Axelrod was named Chief Conductor of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and Music Director of the Luzern Theater in Switzerland. During his 5 year tenure he appeared at the Lucerne Festival each summer, performing in both concert and opera.In April, 2009 Axelrod was elected as Music Director of the l'Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (ONPL), based in Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
and Angers, France. He assumed the title of Music Director Designé with the 2009–2010 season, and began his full duties as Music Director for the 2010–2011 season.
In July 2009, Axelrod was appointed Music Director of the Hollywood in Vienna
Hollywood in Vienna
Hollywood in Vienna is an annual film music gala concert taking place in the Vienna Concert Hall , where the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award is presented. The last "Hollywood in Vienna" gala concert took place on 23.09.2011...
Gala Concert with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna. The first of his concert performances was on October 14, 2009, in the Konzerthaus of Vienna.
From the 2011/12 season, he is the Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica "Giuseppe Verdi" also known as "laVerdi".
Guest conductor
Axelrod has worked with many of the world's leading orchestras including, in Europe: the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, London PhilharmoniaPhilharmonia
The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is Scotland's national symphony orchestra. Based in Glasgow, the 89-member professional orchestra also regularly performs in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, and abroad. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company has performed full-time since 1950,...
NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Polish National Radio Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra or the Kirov Orchestra is located in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. The orchestra was founded in 1783 during the reign of Peter the Great, it was known before the revolution as the Russian Imperial Opera Orchestra...
in St. Petersburg, at Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus with the Vienna Radio Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestra
Gürzenich Orchestra
The Gürzenich-Orchester Köln is a symphony orchestra based in Cologne, Germany. On some recordings, the orchestra goes under the name "Gürzenich-Orchester Kölner Philharmoniker"...
Köln, Berlin's Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lyon
Orchestre National de Lyon
The Orchestre National de Lyon is a French orchestra based in Lyon. Its current primary concert venue is l'Auditorium de Lyon. The orchestra operates with the help of a subsidy from the French Ministry of Culture and from the Rhône-Alpes regional council...
, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
The Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana is a Swiss orchestra based in Lugano. The orchestra's primary concert venue is the Auditorio RSI....
, and the Salzburg Mozarteum. In Asia: the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra is an influential orchestra in China. The music director is Long Yu.It was founded in 1879 as Shanghai Public Band, one of the earliest orchestras in Eastern Asia. It was renamed to Shanghai Municipal Council Symphony Orchestra in 1922. Starting in 1919, an Italian...
and Kyoto Symphony; and in North America: the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra located in the state of New Jersey, United States. Philip James founded the orchestra in 1922. The orchestra is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. Neeme Järvi, the NJSO's music director from 2005 to 2009, is currently the orchestra's...
and Toronto Symphony. He has also been a regular guest of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...
, Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel.-History:In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conductor Charles Munch was called on by the Minister of Culture,...
, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR Radio-Philharmonie of Hanover, Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
, and the Chicago Symphony.
During the summer of 2009 Axelrod made a unique European and North American tour at the invitation of Chinese pianist Lang Lang
Lang Lang (pianist)
Lang Lang , born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances,...
and legendary jazz musician Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, performing in such venues as the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
Arena di Verona, Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, the Ruhr Piano Festival, Rotterdam North Sea Jazz, the Ravenna Festival
Ravenna Festival
The Ravenna Festival is a summer festival of opera and classical music held in the city of Ravenna, Italy and the surrounding area each July and August....
, the Ravinia Festival, the Mann Center, Massey Hall
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a venerable performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto. The theatre originally was designed to seat 3,500 patrons but, after extensive renovations in the 1940s, now seats up to 2,765....
, and the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
.
In 2010, Axelrod, as Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, recorded with Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba is a Swiss soloist violinist. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 5.-Early life:...
works by Chausson and Ravel for Warner Classics, released in 2011.
In 2011, Axelrod made to critical acclaim his Salzburg Festival debut with percussionist Martin Grubinger in a reprise of the marathon Concert they performed in 2006 in Vienna's Musikverein
Soloists whom Axelrod often works with include: Julia Fischer
Julia Fischer
Julia Fischer is a German classical violinist and pianist.-Biography:Julia Fischer, born in Munich, Germany, is of German-Slovakian parentage. Her mother, Viera Fischer , came from the German minority in Slovakia and immigrated from Košice, Slovakia to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972...
, Veronique Gens
Véronique Gens
Véronique Gens is a French soprano. She has spent much of her career recording and performing Baroque music....
, Martin Grubinger, Thomas Hampson, Dietrich Henschel, Daniel Hope
Daniel Hope
Daniel Hope is an English television and film actor. He graduated from Mountview Theatre School in 1999 and has been in numerous plays and television dramas, the most notable of which include Only Fools and Horses, EastEnders and Casualty...
, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Lang Lang, Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.-Biography:Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist...
, Fazil Say
Fazil Say
Fazıl Say , is a Turkish pianist and composer born in Ankara, Turkey.-Biography:Born in 1970 in Ankara, Turkey, Fazıl Say started playing the piano at the age of four. He continued his music training in Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Special Status for Highly Talented Children and...
, Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba is a Swiss soloist violinist. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 5.-Early life:...
, Lilya Zilberstein
Lilya Zilberstein
-Biography:Born in Moscow on April 19, 1965, and educated at the Gnessin State Musical College , she rose to prominence after winning the 1987 Concorso Busoni. This triumph opened up the Italian halls to her, and as soon as she graduated she embarked on a tour, debuting in the Maggio Musicale...
, and Ramón Vargas
Ramón Vargas
Ramón Vargas is an award-winning Mexican operatic tenor. Since his debut in the early '90s, he has developed to become one of the most acclaimed tenors of the 21st century. Known for his most expressive and agile lyric tenor voice, he is especially successful in the bel canto...
.
Axelrod has premiered many new works by such composers as Wolfgang Rihm (Sotte Voce II), Kaija Saariaho (Nymphea Reflection), Gabriel Prokoviev (Remix of Beethoven's 9th for electronica and Orchestra), Fazil Say (1001 Nights in a Harem), Marco Stroppa (Rittratti Senza Volto), Michael Gordon (Grey, Pink, Yellow), Karim al-Zand (7th Voyage of Sindbad), Anthony K. Brandt (Express), and Wojciech Kilar (September Symphony).
Opera
Axelrod's opera activity includes the premiere performances of Bernstein's CandideCandide (operetta)
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman; but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler which is more faithful to...
(directed by Robert Carsen) at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.One of two theatres built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and...
and Milano's Teatro alla Scala and the new production of Krenek's Kehraus um St. Stephan at the Bregenzer Festspiele
Bregenzer Festspiele
Bregenzer Festspiele is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz, Austria.Founded in 1946, the festival presents a wide variety of musical and theatrical events in several venues:...
. In his past seasons at the Luzerner Theater he conducted new productions of Kaiser von Atlantis (for the Lucerne Festival), Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Rake's Progress (for the Lucerne Festival), Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Dreigroschenoper (for the Lucerne Festival), Evgeni Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
(for the Lucerne Festival), Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
and Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
(for the Lucerne Festival). In 2009, he also conducted Tristan and Isolde (directed by Olivier Py), for Angers/Nantes Opera.
Recent recordings
John Axelrod features in a number of audio and video recordings on YouTube. Most recent recordings include Wolfgang RihmWolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...
's newly-commissioned piano concerto "Sotto Voce II" (together with Sotto Voce I) with pianist Nicolas Hodges
Nicolas Hodges
Nicolas Hodges is a British pianist and composer. He specializes in avant garde music. He was educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, Winchester College, and the University of Cambridge....
and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester on the Kairos
Kairos
Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment . The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special...
Label; Fazil Say
Fazil Say
Fazıl Say , is a Turkish pianist and composer born in Ankara, Turkey.-Biography:Born in 1970 in Ankara, Turkey, Fazıl Say started playing the piano at the age of four. He continued his music training in Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Special Status for Highly Talented Children and...
's new violin concerto "1001 Nights in a Harem" with Patricia Kopatchinskaya and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester on Naive; 2 discs featuring works by Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
and his students Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
and Julius Burger, and a live recording from the 2006 Lucerne Festival of Bernstein's "Third Symphony
Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein)
Kaddish is Leonard Bernstein's third symphony. The 1963 symphony is a dramatic work written for a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist and a narrator. The name of the piece, Kaddish, refers to the Jewish prayer that is chanted at every synagogue service for the dead but...
" ('Kaddish'), Schoenberg's "Survivor from Warsaw", and Weill's "Berliner Requiem", all with the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester for the Nimbus label; Dvořák's Ninth Symphony with the Württemburgischer Philharmonie Reutlingen for the Genuin label; Works by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Wladyslaw Szpilman
Władysław "Wladek" Szpilman was a Polish-Jewish pianist, composer, and memoirist. Szpilman is widely known as the protagonist of the Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which is based on his memoir of the same name recounting how he survived the Holocaust...
with the Berlin Radio Orchestra for SonyClassical; and Rolf Wallin
Rolf Wallin
Rolf Wallin is a Norwegian composer, trumpeter and avant-garde performance artist.Rolf Wallin has established a reputation as one of the leading Scandinavian composers of his generation. He studied in Oslo with Finn Mortensen and Olav Anton Thommessen and later at the University of California...
's percussion concerto "Das war schön!" with Martin Grubinger and the Oslo Philharmonic for the Ondine label.
Recent DVDs include: the 2007 Emmy Award winning BBC Holocaust: A Musical Memorial, for which Axelrod and Sinfoneitta Cracovia were the first orchestra to perform on the grounds of Auschwitz since its liberation; the 2008 ARTE production of Die Nacht, featuring Symphonie Fantastique
Symphonie Fantastique
Symphonie Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un Artiste...en cinq parties , Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period, and is still very popular with concert audiences...
and Sinfonietta Cracovia, and the 2008 Bregenzer Festpiele production of Krenek's opera, Kerhaus um St. Stephan. Axelrod has also released a recording of his own compositions, How Do I Love Thee, Love Songs for the Romantic at Heart, on the Marquis Classics Label.
Honors and awards
John Axelrod was awarded the Pacesetter Award by Fast CompanyFast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
Magazine and was named one of Houston's 25 Power People by Inside Houston magazine. He was also a member of Leadership Houston Class XVIII, and is a member of the Franco-American Foundation.
Personal life
Axelrod currently lives between AngersAngers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
and Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, France, and Houston, Texas, and has a daughter. His interests include Italian cuisine, wine, and travel.
External links
- Amazon How Do I Love Thee?
- Hollywood in Vienna
- John Axelrod official website
- John Axelrod Schedule
- Montreux Jazz Festival 2009 Press Conference: John Axelrod, Herbie Hancock, and Lang Lang
- Ravenna Festival with Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang
- Roxanna Panufnik’s “Abraham” with Daniel Hope
- Schedule Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire
- Youtube Fazil Say / 1001 Nights in the Harem
- Youtube Sinfonietta Cracovia
- Youtube Symphonie Fantastique