Andrés Orozco-Estrada

General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich Kapellmeister
Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai

With energy, elegance and esprit, Andrés Orozco-Estrada knows how to inspire both musicians and audiences alike. In recent years, he has established himself internationally as one of the foremost conductors of our time.

In season 2025.26, he will take up the position of General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich Kapellmeister. In his inaugural season, he will devote himself to the romantic tradition of the orchestra, which has shaped numerous important world premieres by Brahms, Mahler and Strauss throughout its history. At the Cologne Opera, he will conduct Puccini's „Manon Lescaut“ and Mozarts „Le nozze di Figaro“, among other works. At the same time, he is providing important impetus for the promotion of young talent in Cologne with a new collaboration with the Kronberg Academy and an international composition competition.

Since season 2023.24, he has been principal conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, with which he will tour Spain in November 2025. Outside Cologne and Turin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada will be performing in concert halls around the world with top international artists during season 2025.26.

In the summer, he made his debut at the Tanglewood Festival and returned to the Lucerne Festival. As the featured artist at the Rheingau Music Festival, Orozco-Estrada presented three different programmes. During the season, he will be a guest conductor with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He will conduct the New Year's Eve concert with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, which will be broadcast live on ZDF.

Orozco-Estrada was Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra (2014–2022), Principal Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (2014–2021) and Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2020–2022). He has made guest appearances at renowned opera houses such as 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 Orchestras, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in Asia with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Medellín (Colombia), Orozco-Estrada began violin lessons as a teenager before turning to conducting at the age of 15. In 1997, his path took him to Vienna to the University of Music and Performing Arts, where he has held a professorship in orchestral conducting since 2022.