Perry So returns to Spain to conduct again the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. In Navarre, he will also have the participation of the Orfeón Pamplonés in a program including works for choir and orchestra by Brahms and the rarely programmed Symphony in C by Paul Dukas. Immediately after Navarre, Perry will join the OSPA, an orchestra with which he has a long history of collaborations, where he will conduct Nikolai Luganski in Medtner’s Concerto No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s Pathetic Symphony. He will finish his Spanish tour in Tenerife, where he will conduct Pablo Ferrández with Tchaikovsky’s Rococó Variationsand Borodin’s Symphony No. 2. Perry should be conducting these days the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and then what would be his second appearance with the San Francisco Symphony, but both commitments postponed due to the COVID19 restrictions.
Perry So has worked, among others, with the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, the Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Israel and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, the Chinese Philharmonic and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. He has been a frequent guest at the Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as a Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He conducted the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Lang Lang in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the closing of his four-year term as Associate Conductor, and led a tour of the Zagreb Philharmonic in the Balkan Peninsula.
Perry So received the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 5th Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg. His recording of the Barber and Korngold violin concertos with Alexander Gilman and the Cape Town Philharmonic received the Diapason D’Or in January 2012. He has done many recordings with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He is known for the enormous variety of repertoire that he conducts, including numerous world premieres on four continents. He has directed productions of Cosí fan tutte, The Magic Flute, The Turn of the Screw, Giulio Cesare, Gianni Schicchi, and Die Fledermaus. His commitment to young people has led him to work with the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Round Top Festival, the Manhattan School of Music, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and the Yale School of Music. He has also been assistant to Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams. Born in Hong Kong, he holds a Degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
Sevillian harpist Cristina Montes Mateo will make her debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias on 8 and 9 October at the Teatro Jovellanos in Gijón and the Auditorio Príncipe Felipe in Oviedo, respectively. Under maestro Miguel Romea, she will perform the Concerto Capriccio for harp and orchestra (1975) by Xavier Montsalvatge. This concert was commissioned by the Orquesta Nacional de España and Nicanor Zabaleta -to whom it is dedicated-, who premiered it together with Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos at the Teatro Real in Madrid on 18 April of that same year.
Cristina Montes completed her studies in London and at the Orchestra Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of maestro Daniel Barenboim. Based in Los Angeles, the Sevillian harpist has given recitals throughout Europe, the US, Japan and South America, and has worked with major international orchestras such as the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orquesta Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, Orquesta de Santiago de Chile, Orchester des Theater für Niedersachsen Hannover or Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In Spain she has performed with the Orquesta de Cordoba, the Malaga Philharmonic, the Valencian Community Orchestra and the JONDE (National Youth Orchestra of Spain).
Her recordings include the album Obras para arpa, with 11 premieres by Spanish female composers; Voyage (NAXOS), with works by Bach, Sancan and Prokofiev, or her most recent album for the Spanish label IBS Classical, which includes among other the harp concerto Pour le jour de l’an, with the Moonwinds Wind Ensemble conducted by Joan Enric Lluna, and the Partita op. 80 for solo harp, both by Salvador Bacarisse. Since 2013, she teaches at the Joaquín Rodrigo Conservatory of Music in Valencia and gives master classes at the Berklee College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire or Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
ACM Concerts is proud to announce that the conductor from Hong Kong, Perry So, joins our roster in exclusive representation for Spain and Portugal. First and Special Prizes in the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg and first Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, So comes from an amazing Opening Concert with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and trumpet player Pacho Flores.
In the 2017-18 Season, conductor Perry So returns to the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias as the orchestra’s Artistic Partner. He makes his European operatic debut at the Royal Danish Opera in Die Zauberflöte, opens the season at the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, and debuts with the Szczecin Philharmonic and the Nürnberger Symphoniker, which he will lead on tour to Milan. Other highlights include a return to the Vancouver Symphony, and a four-program festival with the Cape Town Philharmonic.
Recent debuts include the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras, Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Israel and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras, the China Philharmonic, and the Residentie Orkest in the Hague. He has been a frequent guest both at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl following his stint as an inaugural Dudamel Conducting Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He led the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Lang Lang in an internationally televised celebration of the 15th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the close of his four years as Assistant, then Associate Conductor. He toured the Balkan Peninsula with the Zagreb Philharmonic in the first series of cultural exchanges established after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Perry So received the First and Special Prizes at the Fifth International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg. His recording of Barber and Korngold’s Violin Concertos with violinist Alexander Gilman and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded the Diapason d’Or in January 2012. He has recorded extensively with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
He is known for his wide-ranging programming, including numerous world premieres on four continents and works from the Renaissance and the Baroque. He has conducted productions of Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Turn of the Screw, Giulio Cesare, Gianni Schicchi, and Die Fledermaus. His commitment to working with young musicians has taken him to the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Round Top Festival, the Manhattan School of Music, the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, and the Yale School of Music. He has assisted Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams. Born in Hong Kong, Perry So holds a degree in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
