Biography
Music Director Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister
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 2026/27 season, he takes up the position as Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra starting with a free open-air concert and the opening concert of the Baltic Sea Festival, conducting works by Anders Hillborg, Alma Mahler, Molly Kien and Igor Stravinsky. The programme sets out his artistic vision for the orchestra: he wants to create programmes that move and inspire. "Making music accessible to everyone is close to my heart," says Orozco-Estrada. "Our audience, whether in the concert hall or listening on the radio, is at the centre of why we exist. We want to give something back, with inspiration, energy and music that touches the soul."
In Cologne, where Orozco-Estrada has been General Music Director and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister since autumn 2025, the 2026/27 season is shaped by the reopening of the opera house. His first new production there will be Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. As cultural ambassadors for the City of Cologne, Orozco-Estrada and the Gürzenich Orchestra will embark on a tour to Colombia in February; the tour programme features Beethoven's Fidelio and Fifth Symphony.
Beyond Cologne and Stockholm, Orozco-Estrada‘s season stays varied. In February and March, as Principal Conductor of the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, Orozco-Estrada takes the Columbian Youth Orchestra on a major European tour, with concerts in Vienna, Paris, Zurich, Madrid and Hamburg among others, and María Dueñas as soloist. Shortly afterwards he conducts the world premiere of Max Richter's cello concerto with the Orchestre de Paris and Gautier Capuçon at the Philharmonie de Paris, then tours Switzerland with the orchestra and Richter's work. He closes the season with La Bohème at Zurich Opera. Further engagements take him to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Orozco-Estrada was Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (2023–2026), Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (2014–2022), Chief Conductor of the hr-Sinfonieorchester (2014–2021) and Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony (2020–2022).
He has appeared at opera houses including the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Semperoper Dresden and La Scala in Milan, and has worked with orchestras such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
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.