JOSEPH R. OLEFIROWICZ - Dirigent
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.
