“Music for me is about discovering its story, traveling its journey and engaging the listener in an unexpectedly arresting experience.”
John Lidfors has been selected as a contestant in the 11th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for Conductors held in Katowice, Poland from November 17-27, 2023.
John Lidfors distinguishes himself as a conductor of penetrative and sensitive musicianship exhibiting an uncommon versatility across the orchestral and vocal spectrum. A prize winner in the Arthur Nikisch International Conducting Competition, finalist of the CSO Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition and winner of the 2021 German Choral Conductor's Prize, he has debuted at the Berlin Philharmonie and the Vienna Musikverein concert halls.
Before his appointment to the Bochumer Symphoniker as Assistant Conductor and Director of the Bochum Philharmonic Choir from 2017 to 2019 he founded the Orchester Ventuno in the Nuremberg music scene, winning awards for his contributions to the arts.
As a musician John Lidfors takes a special interest in the works of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Rachmaninoff and Pärt. His regard for performance practice across all periods of music and his conviction of the interpreter’s creative role in giving sound to the composer’s work are central to his musicianship.
In the orchestral field John Lidfors has performed with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, the South Denmark Philharmonic, the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, the Magdeburgische Philharmonie, the Brandenburger Symphoniker and the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. Aside from the concert stage he has also worked with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Staatstheater Cottbus, and the Colorado Symphony.
Equally proficient in choral music John Lidfors has led performances of choral-orchestral works including Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, Honegger’s King David, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, as well as numerous a cappella works such as Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli. As a fellow of the German Music Council’s Conducting Forum he has worked with the RIAS Chamber Choir, MDR Leipzig Radio Choir, WDR Radio Choir Cologne and the Gaechinger Cantorey of the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. Additionally, he has performed with the Berlin Radio Choir, ChorWerk Ruhr, the Philharmonic Choir of Berlin and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus.
“What especially appeals to me about conducting is the way I can impact the musicians’ playing through my gestures as if I were a potter shaping a vessel of sound.”
Dimiter Hristov: Gone with the Wind
Jean Sibelius: Impromptu
Jean Sibelius: Romance
J.S. Bach: Piano Concerto in D Minor
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite
W.A. Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to Coriolan
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Violin Concerto
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
Moritz König, Violin
Giuseppe Verdi: Pater noster
Giacomo Puccini: Messa di Gloria