JOSEPH R. OLEFIROWICZ – was born 1972 in Methuen, Massachusetts.
Following completion of his degree in conducting for musical theatre
and opera at Ithaca College, he came to Europe as an orchestra
member of the European Tour of Bernstein’s On the Town, followed
by an appointment as Associate Conductor of the Capitol Theater
in Düsseldorf and his 1995 debut at New York’s Oswego Opera Theatre,
leading Menotti’s Medium and Schuman’s The Mighty Casey.
Soon after this, he would be appointed principal conductor of commercial
musical theatres in Bochum, Stuttgart and Berlin – where he led the
German companies of Starlight Express, Miss Saigon,
Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame (world premiere production)
and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (as guest).
In 2003, he gave his European opera debut as conductor of Cherubini’s
Lodoïska (and later Verdi’s Aïda) at the Nordhausen Opera, preceding
a tenure as First Kappellmeister – This led to a wide repertory of opera,
operetta, musical theatre, ballet and symphonic literature together
with the Loh-Orchester Sondershausen.
In 2005, he was presented with an Emmy Craft Citation from the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work as Music
and Choral Supervisor for the NBC/Hallmark Television film of Menken
and Ahrens’ A Christmas Carol, serving also as session pianist
with the Budapest Film Orchestra. International press proclaimed
Olefirowicz 2006 “Operetta Conductor of the Year” following the first
post-WWII revival of Benatzky's 1929 Operetta Die Drei Musketiere
in Nordhausen. Continued work as a guest conductor worldwide embraces
a wide swath of repertory. Concert collaborations include artists Lucia
Aliberti, Feruccio Furlanetto, Angelika Kirschlager, KS Jennifer O’Loughlin,
Christine Brewer, Mikhail Pletnev, Albina Shagimuritova and Tony-winner
Paulo Szot, among others.
At the Vienna Volksoper, he served as guest conductor between
2008 and 2019. A revival of Anatevka served as his Vienna debut,
followed by season-after-season of successful premiere productions including
Loesser’s Guys and Dolls, Bernstein’s Candide (where
he became the “Dancing Conductor” internet sensation), the 2015 Austrian
Musiktheater prize-winning production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd,
and the renown 2019 concert production of Gershwin’s iconic opera,
Porgy and Bess.
On the concert stage, he has conducted in the Warsaw Philharmonic,
Munich Philharmonic at Gasteig, Prinzregententheater Munich, Tschaikovsky
Concert Hall Moscow, Zaryadye Concert Hall Moscow, Hannover State Opera,
Schloss Sondershauen, Leipzig State Opera, Berlin State Opera, and Springfield
Symphony Hall (USA). Collaborations include the Springfield
Symphony Orchestra, Symphony New Hampshire, Braunschweig State Orchestra,
Munich Symphoniker, Lower Saxony State Orchestra, Moscow’s
Russian National Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic and Choir,
Orchestra of the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig and the Deutsches
Filmorchester Babelsberg.
His ongoing relationship as guest conductor with the Munich Radio
Orchestra and most recently the Bavarian Radio Choir has
produced the acclaimed 2024 German Premiere of the Runestad Earth
Symphony, the 2022 internationally-televised 70th Anniversary
concert of the orchestra, as well as the 2018 European premiere
of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. His recent live
concert work of Runestad’s Earth Symphony is planned for future
release on the BR-Klassik label.
During the pandemic- which canceled many concerts and projects worldwide
for several years- Olefirowicz utilized this time to purse a Master
of Arts in Pastoral Theology at the Saint Joseph College of Maine.
Olefirowicz is also an internationally-acclaimed concert organist and
has served over sixteen years as Artistic Director of the award-winning
First Music Concert Series and as Kirchenmusikdirektor at
The First Church of Nashua.
