City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra
Next Concerts
​​Autumn 2025 - 16th November
Friends - 7th December
Spring 2026 - 8th March
Summer 2026 - 20th June​​
Bjorn has an extensive performance schedule conducting ensembles and orchestras internationally. He is principal conductor of the Irish Memory Orchestra and has been a guest conductor for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, the European Bienniale in Naples and the Svanker Music Festival. Bjorn was also principal conductor for the St Albans Symphony Orchestra, the London Medical Orchestra, the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, the Europa Ensemble and the Film Score Spectacular Orchestra and the International String Orchestra Festival in Malta.
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Passionate about teaching, Bjorn runs the Conducting Course for the National Schools Symphony Orchestra course in Malvern College and the Conducting Course for the Open Strings Festival in Denmark. He also founded and is principal conductor for the London Chamber Strings which showcases London’s finest string professionals. Hand-picked specifically for their musical integrity and stunning virtuosity the London Chamber Strings are led by David Juritz.
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Bjorn regularly conducts the Hertfordshire Philharmonia and worked as conductor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the London Contemporary Dance School and the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain. He has broadcast live on the SABC, BBC and S4C and has recorded and produced CD’s for the Kingsway Record label. Bjorn studied conducting with Colin Metters, Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has won numerous prizes, bursaries and scholarships including first prize in the Sir John Barbirolli competition, RNCM Contemporary Music Performance Prize
 and a Full International ABRSM Scholarship.
Praised internationally for his performances of the modern cello concerto, Jakob Kullberg is one of the most active and diverse young Danish instrumentalists.
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Jakob studied in Amsterdam, London, Zagreb, Vienna and Copenhagen, with Harro Ruijsenaars, Dmitri Ferschtman, Valter Despalj, Mats Lidström, Morten Zeuthen and Anner Bylsma. Top prize winner at international solo and chamber music competitions, twice winner of the Danish Grammy, most recently in 2013 for his concerto CD Momentum which was also nominated for the coveted Gramophone Award in London and chosen for ’Album of the Week’ with Q2 Music, New York.
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Jakob’s debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London as well as with Ensemble Intercontemporain and concerto debuts with the Bergen Philharmonic and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestras received excellent reviews. ​In 2011 he was awarded the Gladsaxe Music Prize and has been artist in residence for, amongst others, the Tivoli Garden Concert Hall, the International Carl Nielsen Violin Competition and New Music Orchestra, Poland.​
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He has returned frequently to prestigious international festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Huddersfield Festival and Bergen International Festival. Jakob enjoys a unique working relationship with the Danish composer Per Nørgård, who has composed and dedicated numerous works for him; the two have developed a rare dialogical collaboration in which the composer utilises the creative potential of the cellist in an experimental composition process.
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In 2013 he was appointed to the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme and has been the artistic director of the Open Strings Cello Academy since 2004.
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He is also a notable interpreter of the work of Bent Sørensen and in 2011 he moved to Paris to focus on his collaboration with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. As a teacher Jakob has garnered attention giving masterclasses internationally at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Poland, and has held a teaching position at the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2005.​
Rossini's final opera, William Tell concerns the deeds of Austria’s legendary hero. The overture is in four extraordinary sections: a slow opening for cello ensemble suggesting calm Alpine scenery, a violent storm, the famous pastoral cor anglais tune and the final swashbuckling “Lone Ranger” theme.
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Shostakovitch Cello Concerto no. 1 builds on a four-note motto theme. Full of nervous energy and demonic humour, balanced by a lyrical and yearning slow movement, and with a final wild and exhilarating dance.
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Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony is also dominated by a “Fate” motto but there is a rich mix of distinctive melodies, some passionate, some yearning, others remarkably upbeat, but all heartfelt. A beautiful French horn solo leads out the slow movement, interrupted by dramatic brass outbursts. A lyrical Valse seems to end ominously, but Tchaikovsky surprises us with a majestic finale.
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A musical rollercoaster of limitless intensity!