Pacho Flores makes his debut with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra on 1 and 2 March under the direction of Anu Tali, with whom he will perform Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto as well as the Canadian premiere of Salseando, the concert composed by Roberto Sierra that has been recently premiered by Pacho in the US with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Manuel Hernández-Silva. Salseando is part of the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts promoted by Pacho Flores and managed worldwide by his agency, ACM Concerts. It was commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Región de Murcia Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine. The first premiere took place in Liverpool with Domingo Hindoyan on 9 January 2020, the Brazilian premiere on 31 March, 1 and 2 April 2022 under Carlos Miguel Prieto, while Hernández-Silva was in charge of the Spanish and French premieres on 17 December 2020 and 3 June 2022, respectively. After the recent US and forthcoming Canadian premiere, Salseando will land on the stands of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rafael Payare and later return to the Liverpool Philharmonic, which will also record it for Pacho’s next album. The 2023/24 season will also see its Polish premiere, again with conductor Manuel Hernández-Silva.
Other concerts in this project are Concierto de otoño by Arturo Márquez, Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher, Caballos mágicos by Christian Lindberg, Historias de Flores y Tangos by Daniel Freiberg, and Altar de Bronze by Gabriela Ortiz. The first three of them, along with Sierra’s Salseando, have already completed their cycle of premieres with the commissioning orchestras and begun a fruitful career. Lindberg and Freiberg concerts are currently being premiered, and Altar de Bronce, the last concert to join the project, will soon begin its premiere cycle with the Galician Symphony Orchestra and Hernández-Silva, to continue with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Minería Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony and San Diego Symphony.
Meanwhile, there have also been other premieres such as Concierto Mambí, by Igmar Alderete, with the Cordoba Orchestra and Carlos Domínguez-Nieto, or Invocation, by Eleanor Alberga, with the London Schools Orchestra and Peter Ash. Other premieres are scheduled, such as the new concert by Tuomas Turriago with the Tampere Filharmonia and Christian Vásquez, or Divertimento Caribeño, by Sonia Morales, with the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra and Jaime Morales conducting, among others to be announced in due course.
Pacho Flores makes his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel on July 18 at the Hollywood Bowl, where he will perform Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño. The Márquez’s Concerto is part of a program that includes the premiere of La Serpiente de Colores, by Cortés-Álvarez, commissioned by the orchestra, and Estancia, de Ginastera in its complete ballet version. Pacho, who has just closed his residency with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, with which he offered the British premiere of Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz, thus puts the finishing touch to a season that has taken him to Mexico, Singapore, Cyprus, Germany, Venezuela, Great Britain, Serbia, Norway, Spain, Colombia, and twice to Canada —Quebec and Montreal—, as well as several times to the US, including his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, his returns to Tucson and San Diego, where he is a frequent guest, and new visits to Dartmouth College or the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra.
This season, he has also closed the premiere cycle of Historias de Flores y Tangos by Daniel Freiberg and began the one for Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz with the Galicia Symphony conducted by Hernández-Silva. Pacho has also released his latest recording, ESTIRPE, with Deutsche Grammophon. Dudamel closes a list of conductors with whom Pacho has worked this season and which includes Manuel Hernández-Silva, José Luis Gómez, Christian Vásquez, Domingo Hindoyan, Rafael Payare, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Felix Mildenberger, Anu Tali and Alondra de la Parra.
Next season, which will again begin in Mexico, will see Pacho’s debut with new US orchestras such as the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony or the New World Symphony, as well as his return to San Diego to close the cycle of premieres of Gabriela Ortiz and to Ohio for the premiere of Christian Lindberg’s Magical Horses. He will also appear at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and the Bravo Veil! Festival in Colorado, and will perform in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Finland and again Singapore and Norway, as well as in many Spanish orchestras such as the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and the Orquesta Simfónica del Vallès, with which he will make his debut, the Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Region of Murcia or the Orquesta de Córdoba.The 23/24 season will also see the premiere of Pacho’s clarinet concerto, written for Juan Ferrer and commissioned by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, the Orquesta de Extremadura and the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Region of Murcia.
Pacho Flores faces the 2022/23 season as resident artist of two important European orchestras: the Galicia Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. After a summer in which he was also resident artist at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s La Virée Classique festival, and during the 22/23 academic year Pacho Flores will combine his status as resident artist in the Atlantic ports of A Coruña and Liverpool, with the OSG and the RLPO, orchestras participating in the shared commission for Gabriela Ortiz’s new trumpet concerto, Altar de Bronce, together with the New World Symphony, which has scheduled the premiere for the 2023/24 season, and another orchestra yet to be determined.
With the Galician orchestra it will be present with three programs, two symphonic, both under the baton of Manuel Hernández-Silva, one of which has an important educational aspect as it will be performed with the Youth Orchestra of the Galician Symphony, and one of chamber music along with guitarist Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, with whom he recorded the album ENTROPÍA for Deutsche Grammophon, in collaboration with the A Coruña Philharmonic Society. The program with the young orchestra includes the Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, and Albares, Concerto for flugelhorn by Pacho Flores himself; the second program includes Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano together with the world premiere of Altar de Bronce. All these concerts related to Pacho’s residency in Galicia will take place in April 2023. The British orchestra has also proposed three activities, an extraordinary Christmas program, and two subscription programs directed by its head Domingo Hindoyan, the first, in May, with two classics from the French repertoire for trumpet such as the Concerto by Tomasi and the Concertino for trumpet, piano and strings by Jolivet; and a season finale in July that includes Salseando by Roberto Sierra and the UK premiere of Altar de Bronce. These four works will be recorded for a new album. Therefore, December 2022, April, May and July 2023 will be the periods of this double residency.
Along with these two residencies, other outstanding activities of a season that begins with the presentation of ESTIRPE, their fifth album for Deutsche Grammophon, are the premieres in the US and Norway of Historias de Flores y Tangos, with the orchestras of Walla y Walla and Arctic Philharmonic respectively, the latter under the direction of Hernández-Silva, as well as concerts in Singapore, Tucson, Buffalo, Belgrade, Quebec, etc. With the closure of the premiere cycle of the Daniel Freiberg concert throughout the 2022/23 season, there are now five new concertos resulting from the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts that Pacho has promoted: Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’ Rivera, Efraín Oscher, Roberto Sierra and the aforementioned Freiberg, and throughout 2023/24 the remaining two, by Christian Lindberg and Gabriela Ortiz, will be also completed.
Pacho Flores launches ESTIRPE, his new record for Deutsche Grammophon label and the fifth on the yellow label, available from July, 29th on. Taking advantage of its presence in the summer season of the Minería Symphony Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto for the American premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, he presents this recording, which was made with the same protagonists in September 2019 at the Churubusco studios in the Mexican capital. This album features two outstanding guest artists, the Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist, Paquito D’Rivera, and the Argentine pianist, arranger, and composer, Daniel Freiberg, and already includes some of the concerts resulting from the project of shared commissions for new concerts for trumpet to outstanding composers that Pacho and his agency ACM Concerts have been managing in recent years and that has already added six new concerts to the repertoire and with a seventh in the process of composition.
The album opens with the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, the first concerto of the project, premiered in September 2018 by the National Symphony of Mexico under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto. Along with the OSNM, the other orchestras participating in the commission were the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it with its head José Luis Gómez; the Orchestra of the Performing Arts Center of Hyogo, Japan, with maestro Michiyoshi Inoue, and the Oviedo Filarmonía, with Lucas Macías. Next we find Crónicas Latinoamericanas, by Daniel Freiberg, a commission from the WDR Sinfonieorchester of Cologne, originally conceived for clarinet, which Freiberg adapted for trumpet as soon as he saw Pacho on stage.
The third concert on the album is the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, also resulting from the project of shared commissions. In this case, it was the Minería Symphony Orchestra itself, again under the direction of Prieto, who starred in the Mexican premiere and participated in the commission together with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, which premiered it with its current Music Director, Domingo Hindoyan, the Orchestra of Valencia, with Hernández-Silva, and the San Diego Symphony, with its head Rafael Payare. The last of the four concerts included on the album is Mestizo, by Efraín Oscher, which has a special meaning: Commissioned by the Children and Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela and premiered in Caracas in 2010 with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra and the direction of Domingo Hindoyan, it is the true antecedent of everything that came later with this project of shared commissions, as it was the very first concert composed for various instruments of the trumpet family, which later became a constant and a distinctive feature of Pacho Flores’s performances. The album ends with Morocota, a Venezuelan waltz by Pacho Flores originally composed for trumpet and guitar and included on ENTROPÍA, his second album for Deutsche Grammophon, with guitarist and cuatrista Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, and later also orchestrated by Pacho himself.
After so an exciting summer that took him to Mexico with Alondra de la Parra’s Impossible Orchestra, to the Brass Festival Stuttgart, the Italian Brass Week, to Montreal as resident artist of La Virée Classique, where he played and conducted his own and other repertoire in three concerts with different formations; back to Mexico to Freiberg’s and to present ESTIRPE, Pacho Flores kicks off a sensational season with the Singapore Symphony with concerts by Haydn and Arturo Márquez. A 2022/23 season that brings important debuts for Pacho with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, with Carlos Miguel Prieto; Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Gustavo Dudamel; Galicia Symphony, with Manuel Hernández-Silva; National Symphony of Colombia with Christian Vásquez; Quebec Symphony, with Anu Talli; Buffalo Philharmonic, with JoAnn Falletta, National of Cyprus, with Hernández-Silva; Belgrade Philharmonic, with Felix Mildenberger; as well as his return to the San Diego Symphony, with Rafael Payare; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, with Domingo Hindoyan; or Tucson Symphony and Arctic Philharmonic, in both again with Hernández-Silva. In Liverpool and Galicia Flores will be artist-in-residence. He also continues with his project of commissions and premieres of new trumpet concertos, with the completion of the series of premieres by Daniel Freiberg with Arctic and with the Walla Walla Symphony; and the beginning of a new cycle with Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, which will premiere the orchestras of Galicia and Liverpool and whose premieres will continue in the 2023/24 season. In Liverpool he will also record a new album that will include, among others, the concerts Salseando, by Roberto Sierra, and the aforementioned Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz. He will also return to the Bogotá Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Chile, and will maintain his presence in metal forums and meetings all over the world, as well as his didactic and pedagogical activities, among which his participation stands out, within their respective residences, with the Youth Orchestra of the Galician Symphony, and with the In Harmony program of the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Manuel Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores appear with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine to offer two French premieres, those of the trumpet concertos, Salseando, by Roberto Sierra, and Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera. In addition, a purely Latin American program is completed with Redes, by Silvestre Revueltas, and Estancia, by Ginastera. This French premiere of Salseando is the fourth in the cycle of premieres derived from the joint commission between the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Murcia Region Symphony Orchestra, the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and the Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra itself. Hernández-Silva, who was also responsible for its Spanish premiere in Murcia, will conduct it next season with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for its premiere in North America, later it will be Anu Tali with the Orchester Symphonique de Quebec who will premiere it in Canada, and Domingo Hindoyan will conduct it again in Liverpool for a new recording.
In the other hand, the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera completed its series of premieres by the co-commissioning orchestras last February by the San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare, after the Minería Symphony, again the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Valencia Orchestra, a Spanish premiere also under Hernández-Silva’s conducting. Since then it has already been scheduled with the Castilla y León Symphony and Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Gran Canaria Philharmonic with Hernández-Silva, Payare will take it this summer with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and next season, again under the baton of Hernández-Silva, will be presented together with the Galician Symphony. Hernández-Silva’s presence in this commissioned project will continue with the premieres of the new concert commissioned from Gabriela Ortiz with the Galician Symphony and Daniel Freiberg’s Historias de Flores y Tangos with the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, both at the season 2022/23, and at the time he also conducted the Spanish premiere of Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, with which he also premiered and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Cantos y Revueltas by Pacho Flores himself.
Cover of Cantos y Revueltas, with Flores, Rondón, the Rea Filharmonía and Hernández-Silva
All these new trumpet concerts are the result of a carefully laid plan with the aim of expanding the scarce repertoire for solo trumpet and orchestra, which is materializing through a project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts from outstanding composers such as all those mentioned here. In a first phase, Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera and Roberto Sierra were commissioned, in a second Christian Lindberg, Efraín Oscher and Daniel Freiberg, and with Gabriela Ortiz a third phase begins and will last for the next seasons. The first of all the premieres was Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, by the National Symphony of Mexico and Carlos Miguel Prieto, and despite the interruptions and delays caused by the COVID19 pandemic, with this one from Bordeaux, sixteen of the twenty-one planned premieres of the first two phases have already been made, and if nothing prevents it, at the beginning of the 2023/24 season the twenty-five premieres corresponding to the seven commissions will have been completed.
