Born in 1960 in New York, Joseph Swensen is currently Principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the Ensemble orchestral de Paris. He is also Principal conductor of the Malmö Opera since 2007, and Conductor Emeritus of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, that he conducted as principal conductor from 1996 to 2005.
He has performed with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris at the Folles Journées in Nantes, France and Tokyo, at the Lucerne Festival and at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Recently, he founded an academy of conducting (May 2011). He also toured several times with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing in the Mostly Mozart in New York, at Tangelwood, Ravinia, at the BBC Proms, etc. Besides, he has conducted the London Mozart Players, the Chamber Orchestra of Los Angeles, and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra among others.
He recorded a series of discs for Linn Records. His love for new music made several composers write for him (James MacMillan, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Sally Beamish, Karin Rehnqvist and Elenor Alberga).
Before dedicating himself to conducting, Joseph Swensen was a violinist and sometimes he still performs as a soloist in chamber music concerts, as he did at the Lincoln Center in New York in 2007.
As a composer, his orchestral version of the rare Trio op. 8 by Brahms (1854 version), titled Sinfonia in B, was performed for the first time in Europe and in the United States during the season 2007/2008. In 2009, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra premiered his Symphonie pour cor et orchestre, « Le feu et la rose ». A recording of his Sinfonia in B with Swensen as violinist and the Orchestra of the Malmö Opera will soon be available on CD (Signum).
© Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
