Christian Vásquez will conduct the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in two concerts that will take place on November 16 and 19 at the Jing Jing hall in Shanghai and the Grand National Theater in Beijing. The program consists of Guasamacabra, by the recently and prematurely disappeared Paul Desenne, Three Symphonic Versions, by Julián Orbón, and the Symphony No. 10 in E minor Op.93, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Christian has just conducted the Orchestre Pasdeloup in Paris, the oldest active orchestra in France, and will now have an important presence in Spain leading orchestras such as the Galician Symphony Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia, where, among other works, he will conduct the premieres of the Clarinet Concerto by Pacho Flores with Juan Ferrer, the dedicatee of the work, as soloist, or the concert for Venezuelan cuatro by Leo Rondón, with the composer himself as soloist.
Christian Vásquez was Music Director of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra between 2013 and 2019, Principal Guest Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands from 2015 to 2020, and of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra between 2010 and 2013. He is also Music Director of the Juan José Landaeta Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela, previously known as the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted other orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Galician Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Philharmonic of Luxembourg, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Mexican National Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Estonian National Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra or the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, among many others.
Marina Heredia will sing El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla with the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia under the baton of Roberto Forés on November 16 and 17 at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium in Murcia and the Infanta Elena Auditorium in Águilas, respectively. Marina returns to El Amor Brujo after closing last season with the enormous success of En Libertad. El camino de los gitanos, a new work by José Quevedo “Bolita” and Joan Albert Amargós that was commissioned and premiered by the Duisburger Philharmoniker.
This premiere was part of an artistic residency of the cantaora in the season of the German orchestra, with which she also sang El Amor Brujo. Marina will perform again this immortal work by Falla along with the Spanish premiere of En Libertad with the Galician Symphony Orchestra and conductor José Trigueros, under whose baton she will also perform Canciones Españolas Antiguas by Federico García Lorca accompanied by the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville.
Marina Heredia is definitely the most in-demand singer internationally for this repertoire. Only last year and in Germany, she appeared at the Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, at the Laieszhalle of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and at the Lausitz Festival in Görlitz. Marina has performed with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille, Orquestra Sinfônica da Casa da Música do Porto, the Rouen Opera, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with which she recorded El Amor Brujo under the baton of Pablo Heras-Casado, or the production of La Fura del Baus for the Granada Festival under the baton of Manuel Hernández-Silva, as well as with the Navarre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Perry So or the RTVE Orchestra, again under Hernández-Silva.
Hernández-Silva, Pacho Flores and Leo Rondón meet again to continue presenting the work Cantos y Revueltas throughout the globe, this time together with Albares, the flugelhorn concerto also composed by the Spanish-Venezuelan trumpeter. On this occasion the stage is the Örebro Konserthus, where they will be accompanied by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. The program also includes the new orchestration of Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition by the Swedish composer Christian Lindberg.
Premiered and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in January 2018 with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia at the Auditorio de Galicia, Cantos y Revueltas has already been performed in places as different as Miami, Fort Worth (Texas), Malaga, Navarre, Jalisco, Badajoz , Bogotá, Liverpool, Valencia, Valladolid, Segovia, Cuenca, Las Palmas, Montreal, Mexico City, Nicosia, Dartmouth, Tromsø and Bodø in Norway, or Raleigh (North Carolina), and after this concert in Sweden it will still come to Córdoba, Granada, Barcelona, Miami, Vail (Colorado) or Buenos Aires, most of them with the presence of Leo Rondón and the conducting of Manuel Hernández-Silva. Originally written for trumpets, Venezuelan cuatro and strings, Pacho had already arranged a version for full orchestra that was premiered in Norway. In Sweden they will perform the premiere of the classical orchestra version, which will also be heard in Granada next January.
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Although a more recent composition —it was premiered in April 2022 with the Tenerife Symphony under the baton of Christian Vásquez—, Albares, concert for flugelhorn and orchestra, has already been performed in Caracas, Santiago de Chile, A Coruña, Liverpool and Bogotá. After its Swedish premiere, it will be heard in Singapore, Mexico City and Barcelona, and also be the object of a recording soon.
