Andrés Orozco-Estrada

New Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In autumn 2026, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra will begin a new era with Andrés Orozco-Estrada as its Music Director. With roots in Colombia, education in Vienna, and extensive experience from some of the world’s leading orchestras, he brings musical brilliance, warmth, and a strong desire to make music accessible to more people.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada has a clear vision: concerts with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra should move, inspire, and be accessible to everyone. He aims to create programs that are not only artistically strong but also engage audiences in new ways—preferably through interaction.

Music speaks powerfully on its own, yet sharing a few thoughts with the audience can greatly enrich the experience and foster a sense of connection. I want listeners to feel drawn into the performance and become part of the musical journey - Andrés Orozco-Estrada

He has guest-conducted the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra several times and describes the ensemble as “open, honest, and full of energy.” His first project as Music Director will be during the Baltic Sea Festival in 2026, where he will lead the Swedish premiere of a new work by Anders Hillborg.

The search for a new Music Director for the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra has been a thorough process. The choice of Andrés Orozco-Estrada received strong support from the entire orchestra in the final vote among the musicians.

“Andrés combines musical brilliance with an ability to connect with the audience. We believe he has the best conditions to start a new chapter in the story of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra,” says Staffan Becker, General Manager of the Swedish Radio Concert Hall, Berwaldhallen.

As Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada will be a central part of Swedish Radio’s mission to make culture and music accessible to all. With experience from radio orchestras across Europe, he looks forward to developing the orchestra’s role both on the air and digitally.

Our audience—whether in the concert hall or listening on the radio—is at the heart of our existence. With inspiration, energy, and music that touches the soul, we seek to give something back. It is a privilege to continue this great tradition while looking to the future - Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Biography

With his trademark charismatic energy and elegance Andrés Orozco-Estrada has quickly established himself amongst the top league of international conductors, inspiring musicians and audiences alike.

At the start of the 2025/26 season he is taking over as general Music Director of the City of Cologne and as Kapellmeister of the Gürzenich Orchestra. In his inaugural season he is focusing on the orchestra’s Romantic tradition – in the course of its history the orchestra has given many important world premieres of works by Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss. At the Cologne Opera he will be conducting performances of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, among other works. At the same time he is continuing his work with the Kronberg Academy and helping to promote the careers of young and talented musicians in Cologne through an international competition for composers.

Since the start of the 2023/24 season Andrés Orozco-Estrada has been Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale della RAI in Turin and will be touring Spain with them in November 2025.
During the next season, his engagements will take him beyond Cologne and Turin to concert halls all over the world, where he will be working with many eminent international artists.
Andrés Orozco-Estrada made his Tanglewood Festival debut this summer and returned to the Lucerne Festival. He was also Artist in Residence at the Rheingau Music Festival, where he presented three different programmes.
Other guest appearances during the season include concerts with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He will additionally be conducting the New Year’s Eve Concert with the Dresden Staatskapelle, which will
be broadcast live on German television.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada was Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra between 2014 and 2022, Principal Conductor of the hr (Hesse Radio) Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2021 and Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 2020 to 2022.

Among the international opera houses where he has appeared are the Vienna, Berlin and Dresden State Operas and La Scala, Milan, while the leading orchestras that he has conducted include the Berlin, Vienna, London and New York Philharmonics as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and, in Asia, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada was born in Medellín in Colombia and began studying the violin in his early youth, switching to conducting at the age of fifteen. In 1997 he began a course of study at Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts, where he has been professor of orchestral conducting since 2022.

1–2 April 2026
100 - 420 kr
Shostakovich’s Symphony No 9
Andrés Orozco-Estrada visits the Swedish Radio Concert Hall, Berwaldhallen, to perform Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra and more.
Read more & tickets