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Few of the world\u2019s major maestros can boast a light carbon footprint. It\u2019s hardly compatible with orchestra-hopping, yet some conductors manage better than others. Despite his busy international schedule, Sakari Oramo succeeds at least on a local level.<\/p>
Whether in Helsinki or London, I\u2019ve never known him not to turn up for an interview on a bicycle, and he still has his helmet in hand when we meet in the foyer of the Royal College of Music (RCM) before a preliminary rehearsal there for one of his 2024 BBC Proms programmes.<\/p>
It helps that the Finnish conductor has in recent years focused the most substantial part of his work in Helsinki, his home when not travelling, and London, where for the last decade he has been chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong> (BBC SO). These two bases come together in the third (25 Aug) of his four BBC Proms<\/a><\/strong> this summer, when he conducts the combined orchestras of the Royal College of Music and the Sibelius Academy.<\/p> This ground-breaking collaboration will represent a Proms debut for both institutions with a programme mixing well-known Holst<\/a><\/strong> (his cosmic symphonic suite The Planets<\/a><\/strong><\/em>) with little-known Sibelius<\/a><\/strong> (The Wood Nymph<\/em>) and the world premiere of a newly commissioned song cycle by Lara Poe (Songs from the Countryside<\/em>).<\/p> Sakari Oramo has been a professor at the Sibelius Academy since 2020, but Finland\u2019s foremost musical training institution has always been a part of his life. \u2018I studied violin there, and conducting later on,\u2019 though he points out that because of a fast-rising career he never actually graduated. <\/p> \u2018I was getting too busy. But both my parents were professors there \u2014 my mother a professor of piano for decades, and my father a professor of musicology. It kind of goes in the family. Now I conduct about two or three concerts per academic year with the orchestra of the Academy. Also, I\u2019m supervising the whole orchestral programme, seeing that it\u2019s balanced. It\u2019s a big task. I thought when I embarked on it that it should be possible to combine an international career with teaching, as that\u2019s for everyone\u2019s good. But it\u2019s not so easy\u2026\u2019<\/p> All of Oramo\u2019s other Proms this year are with the BBC SO, and an emphasis on English and Finnish music \u2013 specialities of the conductor \u2013 makes them look quite personal (less so the Last Night of the Proms<\/a><\/strong> on 14 Sept, which of course has its formula). Add in his lengthy tenure at the BBC SO, his lifelong connection with the Sibelius Academy and the fact that one of the soloists is his wife, the soprano<\/strong><\/a> Anu Komsi, and these concerts appear positively autobiographical. <\/p>Sakari Oramo at the 2024 BBC Proms: Sibelius, Holst and more<\/h2>
‘The BBC SO wanted me to take them on a musical journey’<\/h2>