While waiting for the next intense concerts' season, John Axelrod will be conducting quite often in Japan during the summer.
After beeing invited by Valery Gergiev as Principal Conductor at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, with concerts mainly dedicated to Mahler and Bernstein, on 31 August John Axelrod will be conducting the prestigious NHKSO in Tokyo with a program mostly dedicated to Bernstein, Axelrod's former professor.
More infos at the link.

An intense summer for Stanislav Kochanovsky, who recently conducted two opera productions ("Madama Butterfly" and "Boris Godunov") at the "Stars of the White Night Festival" in Saint Petersburg. 
More over, following his successful debut in 2017 with "Eugene Onegin", Maestro Kochanovsky will be back to the Verbier Festival. In the 2018 edition, which is marking the 25th anniversary of the Festival, Stanislav Kochanovsky will be conducting a symphonic concert (Sunday 29/07, with Mikhail Pletnev and Lucas Debargue at the piano) and "Rigoletto" (Sunday 05/08) with the young artists of the Verbier Festival Academy. 

https://www.verbierfestival.com/concert/dim-29-juillet-19h00/
https://www.verbierfestival.com/concert/dim-05-aot-14h30/

Among the Summer Season events organised by Teatro Carlo Felice in the fascinating Porto Antico in Genova, on Friday 27 and Sunday 29 two performances of Rossini's "Il barbiere di Siviglia" conducted by Daniel Smith.
Principal Guest Conductor at the operahouse in Genova, for this production Daniel Smith decided to donate his own fee to the theatre wishing to support all the activities dedicated to young artists.
More over, Maestro Smith will open the 2018/2019 Season at Teatro Carlo Felice, conducting "An American in Paris" (12-21 October).
http://www.carlofelicegenova.it/2018/05/30/il-barbiere-di-siviglia-ti-porto-allopera/
http://www.carlofelicegenova.it/2018/07/02/an-american-in-paris/

On Friday 29 June, Giorgio Battistelli's opera "Riccardo III" is performed for the first time in Italy at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. This premiere will be conducted by Tito Ceccherini, one of the most appreciated orchestra conductors on an international level, especially in the '900 and contemporary repertoire. The production is directed by Robert Carsen.

The work is inspired by Shakespeare's character of Richard III, who takes on dramatic and ironic features in the composer's score. According to Tito Ceccherini, "Giorgio Battistelli is a composer who – in particular in his theatre works – is able to use a wide variety of means with great ductility, fantasy and naturalness. In such a complex work as this, in which Shakespeare’s text has been rigorously adapted, this ductility proves to be extremely useful and prolific [...]".

Ricccardo III will be staged in Venice for five evenings and the performance on Tuesday, July 3 at 19.00 will be broadcast live on Rai Radio3.

JOHN AXELROD conducts this week the Symphonieorchester of the Bayerischen Rundfunks:

June 28 & 29
Barber – Adagio
Stravinsky – Chant Funébre Op. 5
Shostakovich – Symphony N. 13

As Music and Artistic Director of the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, John Axelrod has achieved an impressive success especially with his interpretations of Mahler, Shostakovich, Brahms and Bernstein Symphonies:

Historic Shostakovich of the ROSS
Shostakovich's interpretation of Leningrad was truly historic. Axelrod's direction proved to be very expert and intense, offering an accurate play of contrasts between the orchestral mass and more chamber music, and printing a character of expressive crescendo throughout the symphony.