Johannes Gustavsson
Conductor
Swedish conductor Johannes Gustavsson works regularly with all major Nordic orchestras, being in demand as an interpreter of extensive symphonic and operatic repertoire. He is Artistic Director at Jönköping Sinfonietta, with established close relationships with orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. The soloists he often performs with include Janine Jansen, Peter Jablonski, Martin Fröst, Nina Stemme, Vikingur Olafsson, and many others.
His effortless elegance, artistic integrity, and impeccable professionalism make him a popular artist who is able to forge long-term collaborations: in 2022, he celebrated a 20-year partnership with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Throughout his career, he has held senior conducting posts at the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra, the Västerås Sinfonietta, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, and was chief conductor at the Wermland Opera and at the Oulu Symphony Orchestra until 2021.
As a champion of new music, he is dedicated to ensuring that works of his contemporaries are heard in concert halls, and to date he has premiered over 50 orchestral works written in the twenty-first century. A prize winner at the Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt and the Toscanini Competition in Parma, he was the first artist to be awarded both the Swedish Conductor’s Prize and the Herbert Blomstedt Award.
Originally trained as a violist, his strong passion for conducting and excellent leadership skills led him to study conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Ole Kristian Ruud and Olav Anton Thommessen, and the great Finnish conductor Jorma Panula.