An accomplished and versatile musician, Joseph R. Olefirowicz successfully
maintains an active conducting career leading symphonic, operatic and
music theater productions around the world. He last appeared in Moscow
with the Russian National Orchestra for the inaugural 2018 “Silvester”
concert in the new Zaryadye Concert Hall in Moscow, featuring soloists
Albina Shagimuratova (soprano) and pianist Mikhail Pletnev. Further
appearances with the RNO include his concert production of Bernstein’s
Candide in Moscow’s Tschaikowsky Hall.
Olefirowicz enjoyed a twelve-year relationship as guest conductor
with the Vienna Volksopera. Beginning with his podium debut in 2008
(Fiddler on the Roof (Anatevka)), Olefirowicz has since led acclaimed
Volksopera productions of Guys and Dolls, Abrahams Jazz-Operetta Die
Blume von Hawaii, Bernstein’s Candide (where he became the Internet
sensation, the "Dancing Conductor"), as well the 2015 Austrian Musiktheater
Preis award winning production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Further productions
have included the critically-acclaimed concert staging of Kismet (Wright &
Hall / Borodin), as well as premieres of How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, and repertory
performances of Lehar’s Die lustige Witwe. His February 2019 concert
production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Vienna Volksopera, Weiner
Zeitung declared “Conductor Joseph Olefirowicz held all participants
masterfully together and led with a deep through-concept of the entire
work.” Die Presse raved “All in all, the evening is successful mostly
thanks to Joseph Olefirowicz…the first call for American repertory.”
Last season, Olefirowicz returned for his fourth season at the Hannover
State Opera in Germany to lead Bernstein’s West Side Story. Additionally,
he made his podium debut with the Munich Rundfunkorchester for the European
debut of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. .
Equally at home leading symphonic repertoire, Olefirowicz’s orchestral
credits include his recent engagements with the Warsaw National Philharmonic,
Munich Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra Moscow, Munich Symphony,
Braunschweig State Orchestra, the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin,
Leipzig Opera, Orchestra of the Musikalischen Komödie Leipzig, the Loh-Orchestra
Sondershauen, German Film Orchestra, and the Lower Saxony State Orchestra
of Hannover. In the States, Olefirowicz has made guest conducting appearances
with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra and Symphony New Hampshire—both
of which are located close to his home in New Hampshire. Future podium
appearances include a return to the Munich Radio Orchestra and his debut
with the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow.
Raised and trained in the US, Olefirowicz’s distinguished European
career began in 1994 with a touring production of Bernstein’s On the
Town. The next year, Olefirowicz was named Music Director of the Bochum
(Germany) production of Starlight Express. He then progressed into commercial
musical theatres in Stuttgart and Berlin, and conducted the original
productions of Miss Saigon, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. He further worked in Budapest and London
as Music and Choral Supervisor for the NBC/Hallmark production of Menken &
Ahrens’ A Christmas Carol, and was presented an Emmy Craft Citation
from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles for
his contributions to this film.
In 2003, Olefirowicz made his European opera podium debut with Cherubini’s
Lodoïska at the Nordhausen Opera, where he then developed a broad repertory
of Opera, Operetta, Musical Theatre, Ballet and Symphonic literature,
as First Kapellmeister.
In addition to his conducting, Olefirowicz is an international concert
organist. For the past eleven seasons, Olefirowicz has served as Artistic
Director of First Music Concert Series and Director of Church Music
for The First Church of Nashua (New Hampshire) – The large choral and
music program under his leadership has been recognized twice by New
Hampshire Magazine, as Best of New Hampshire 2012 & 2017.
Joseph Olefirowicz was born 1972, in Methuen, Massachusetts, near
Boston. He is a distinguished graduate of the Ithaca College (New York)
School of Music.