Christian Vásquez and Juan Ferrer meet again, this time with the Symphony of the Region of Murcia, to close the premiere cycle of Áurea, Rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra by Pacho Flores, commissioned by the Symphony of Galicia and the Orchestra of Extremadura next to the Murcian orchestra. After the premieres with the Galician Symphony also under Vásquez’s conducting on April 18 and 19, and in Extremadura, where the baton was led by Andrés Salado, Vásquez takes the baton again for this closing on May 31 at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium in Murcia and June 1 at the El Batel Auditorium in Cartagena. This concert is already scheduled to premiere in Germany next season with the Wuppertal Sinfonieorchester, once again led by Christian Vásquez, on April 6 and 7, 2025. The soloist, naturally, is always Juan Ferrer, to whom it is dedicated the concerto.
Christian Vásquez was chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra between 2013 and 2019, and principal guest conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra between 2010 and 2013 and of the Het Gelders Orkest from 2015 to 2020. He is currently associate conductor of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and conductor musical of the Juan Jose Landaeta Orchestra, belonging to the SISTEMA of Venezuela. Vásquez has worked with orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchester de la Suisse Romande, Vienna Radio Symphony, Salzburg Camerata, Russian State Symphony, Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse, Galician Symphony, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Sinfónica Prague Radio, Warsaw Beethoven Festival, Poznan, Rotterdam, Helsinki, Turku and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Basel Symphony, Estonian National Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, RTE National Orchestra Ireland, Tokyo Philharmonic or Singapore Symphony. In North America he has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, during his participation in their Young Artist Fellowship program.
Juan Ferrer has been a guest of the Leipzig Radio Orchestra, the Liceu Orchestra of Barcelona, the Palau de les Arts of Valencia, the National Orchestra of Catalonia or the RTVE Orchestra among many others and has worked under the orders of some of the most prestigious batons: Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Harding, Sir Neville Marriner, Osmo Vänska, Guennadi Rozdestvenski, Peter Maag, James Conlon, Jesús López Cobos, Stanislaw Scrowaczewski, Dima Slobodeniouk, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Eschenbach, Juanjo Mena or Alberto Zedda among many others. Juan Ferrer is a Professor at the Alfonso He teaches courses in Spain, France, China, Taiwan, Italy, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Belgium, Russia, Argentina, in addition to participating in various editions of the Ibero-American Clarinet Academy in Castelo de Paiva ( Portugal). He has recorded an album with the pianist Daniel Del Pino with works dedicated to him by internationally renowned authors: Salvador Brotóns, Fernado Buide, Eduardo Soutullo, Karolis Biveinis, Octavio Vázquez, Wladimir Rosinskij and Juan Durán.
Christian Vásquez conducts the Tampere Philharmonic in a program that includes the absolute premiere of the new trumpet concerto by Tuomas Turriago, commissioned by the orchestra itself from the Colombian-Finnish composer and which will feature the Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores as soloist. The concert, which is completed with Fandangos by Roberto Sierra, Glosa Sinfónica Margariteña, by Inocente Carreño, and Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, will take place next Friday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the Tampere Hall.
Christian Vásquez was born in Caracas in 1984, he began his music studies as a violinist and member of the renowned musical education program ‘El Sistema’. In 2006 he began his studies in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of maestro José Antonio Abreu, and that same year he was named Music Director of the José Félix Ribas Youth Symphony, in the state of Aragua. He was a Dudamel scholarship recipient during the 2009/10 season. Following his debut with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in October 2009, one of his first appearances in Europe, Christian Vásquez was appointed its Principal Guest Conductor, a position he held between 2010 and 2013. In 2010 he was also named Music Director of the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra from Venezuela, and has continued to lead it since 2017, when it changed its name to Orquesta Juan Jose Landaeta. Christian Vásquez became Principal Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, thus inaugurating an initial four-year mandate that would be extended for two more years until 2019. In the 2015/16 season he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest (Arnhem Symphony Orchestra), beginning his tenure with a tour of the Netherlands. He was recently also named associate director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony.
Tuomas Turriago (1979) is a Finnish composer, pianist and conductor of Colombian origin. Since 2004 he has served as an accompanying senior lecturer at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Turriago is a founding member and director of the Tampere Chamber Opera Association. He has conducted the City Orchestras of Vaasa, Seinäjoki and Mikkeli, and TampereRaw, the Tampere Chamber Orchestra and the Brass Band of the Tampere Philharmonic.
The absolute premiere of Albares, Pacho Flores’ concert for flugelhorn, will take place next Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Adán Martín Auditorium in Tenerife, performed by Pacho himself with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra (OST) under the baton of Christian Vásquez. A second trumpet concert, Danzas Latinas by Efraín Oscher, commissioned and premiered by the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in November 2021 under Manuel Hernández-Silva, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64 will complete the program. This flugelhorn concert is the second work composed by Pacho Flores for solo instrument and orchestra after Cantos y Revueltas, fantasia concertante for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings, which was also premiered by the Real Filharmonía de Galicia and Manuel Hernández-Silva in January 2018, featuring Leo Rondón on the Venezuelan cuatro, and which is part of the homonymous album for Deutsche Grammophon, Pacho’s fourth recording for the yellow label.
The instrument construction technique has always been vital for the development of music; not in vain instruments are the tools whose evolution and improvement have allowed composers to go a step further, demanding from the performers increasingly greater skills in order to exploit the potential of their new works, a classic virtuous circle. The appearance of pistons expanded the possibilities of brass instruments and therefore their importance within the orchestra, as well as their role as solo instruments, as was the case with Haydn’s Trumpet Concert, commissioned by Weidinger for a new instrument with valves that allowed him to play the chromatic scale, soon improved by the incorporation of the three pistons. Nowadays, Pacho Flores is promoting both an expansion of the solo trumpet repertoire as well as an unprecedented technological evolution of the instrument. Both lines do not run in parallel but intermingle and feed each other back continually, allowing their mutual development.
The expansion of the repertoire comes about through an ambitious project of shared commissions to leading composers, who write trumpet concerts for the new four-piston prototypes in new keys developed by STOMVI. Pacho works closely with the engineers in the development of these instruments, whose timbre and register possibilities are made known in advance to the composers, so that they know what they can expect from them. The fact that Pacho uses different trumpets in the same concert means that the expressive possibilities of timbre, color and range of these pieces are multiplied. In Albares, Pacho has given this process a new twist by requiring STOMVI to manufacture three new instruments to meet the demands of the work. For the first movement, Bambuco, a C flugelhorn has been constructed, for the second, Milonga, a low A flugelhorn, and for the third, Periquera, a high D flugelhorn.
Christian Vásquez and Pacho Flores are working together again, this time with the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra, on November 8 and 9 at the Auditorio León de Greiff. The program includes the following works: Gershwin: Cuban Overture; Márquez: Concierto de Otoño; Villalobos: Aria de la Bachiana nº 5; Flores: Morocota; Piazzolla: Invierno Porteño (from Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas); and Ginastera: Suite from ballet Estancia.
Christian Vásquez and Pacho Flores have known each other since their infancy, when they were together at EL SISTEMA in Venezuela. After developing an international career and being both based in Europe, they have had the chance to collaborate on different occasions with orchestras such as the Philharmonic of Turku in Finland, the Stavanger Symphony in Norway or the Het Gelders Orkest in the Netherlands, in addition to Pacho Flores’ record debut for Deutshe Grammophon with CANTAR, which they recorded with the Funkhausorchester in Berlin in 2013.
If Christian Vásquez and Pacho Flores recorded what was Pacho’s first record for the yellow label, this program includes two works, Aria de la Bachiana nº 5 by Villalobos and Invierno Porteño by Piazzolla, which are part of CANTOS Y REVUELTAS, his fourth record for the German label that will be launched very soon. This new album was conducted by Manuel Hernández-Silva with the participation of Venezuelan cuatro player Leo Rondón and the Royal Galician Philharmonia. In between these two were published the albums ENTROPÍA, in 2017, with guitarist Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, and FRACTALES, in 2018, with the Arctic Philharmonic and Christian Lindberg. This program also includes Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño, which is part of a large and ambitious project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts that Pacho himself is promoting and that includes composers such as Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg and Daniel Freiberg. The main target of this project is to expand and improve the repertoire for solo trumpet with orchestra.
Christian Vásquez comes to Oviedo to replace maestro Alondra de la Parra, who has had to cancel for health reasons, at the head of the Oviedo Filarmonía, for a program that includes songs by Haydn, Mozart and Verdi, with Rolando Villazón as soloist, Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Márquez and Symphony No. 8 in G major, op.88, by Dvořák. The concert will take place next Thursday, May 9 at the Príncipe Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo. This unforeseen substitution precedes his visit to the Tenerife Symphony the following week, with which he will conduct the Concerto el Mar, for Venezuelan Cuatro and orchestra, along with works by Gabriela Ortiz, Evencio Castellanos and Alberto Ginastera.
Christian Vásquez is one of the most prolific Venezuelan musical talents of recent years. Recognized for his charismatic stage presence, powerful performances, and musical integrity, Vásquez continues to attract international attention as one of today’s leading conductors. Christian was born in Caracas in 1984. He began his music studies as a violinist and member of the renowned musical education program ‘El Sistema’. In 2006 he began his studies in orchestral conducting under the tutelage of maestro José Antonio Abreu, and that same year he was named Music Director of the José Félix Ribas Youth Symphony, in the state of Aragua. He was a Dudamel scholarship recipient during the 2009/10 season.
Following his debut with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in October 2009, one of his first appearances in Europe, Christian Vásquez was appointed its Principal Guest Conductor, a position he held between 2010 and 2013. In 2010 he was also named Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra Teresa Carreño from Venezuela, and has continued to lead it since 2017, when it changed its name to Orquesta Juan Jose Landaeta. With this formation, which continues to be the most important youth orchestra in Venezuela, they have made many interesting international tours that have taken them to stages in London, Berlin, Lisbon, Hamburg, Milan, Toulouse, Vienna, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Munich, Stockholm, Istanbul, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai.
Christian Vásquez became Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of the 2013/14 season, inaugurating an initial four-year mandate that would be extended for a further two years until 2019, following a successful relationship with the orchestra. He began his tenure with a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in the orchestra’s new hall in August 2013. He led the orchestra on several tours through Scandinavia, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands, presenting ambitious programs and receiving critical acclaim. favorable. In the 2015/16 season he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest (Arnhem Symphony Orchestra), beginning his tenure with a tour of the Netherlands with an exclusively Latin program. In the spring of 2015, Christian achieved further success by directing four performances of Bizet’s Carmen at the Norwegian Opera.
In addition to his many responsibilities with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra and his regular engagements in Stavanger and Arnhem, Christian Vásquez has worked with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchester de la Suisse Romande, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Rotterdam, Salzburg Camerata, Russian State Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In 2010, Vásquez made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic at the invitation of music director Zubin Mehta. During the 2010/2011 season he also conducted the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, the Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France and the National Orchestra of Belgium. In North America, Vásquez has conducted the National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), the New Jersey Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Vásquez has since again conducted the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Camerata Salzburg on international tours with performances at the Grosses Festspielhaus, Wiener Konzerthaus, Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Berliner Philharmonie, as well as the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse , Galician Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Beethoven Festival Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mexican National Symphony, Poznan Philharmonic in Poland, Royal Danish Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, RTE National Orchestra of Ireland, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Pinchas Zukerman, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth as part of the orchestra’s long December tradition, or the two editions of the Tongyeong International Music Festival in Korea to which he has been invited. From 2021 to 2023 Vásquez also assisted Gustavo Dudamel in the new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Paris Opera, and made his debut with the Paris Opera Orchestra and the Ballet School of the Opera conducting four performances at the Opera Garnier.
In his commitment to education and youth, he frequently conducts youth orchestras such as the InterHarmony International Festival Youth Orchestra, the Barcelona Youth Orchestra (Spain) or the Geneva Conservatory Orchestra (Switzerland), in addition to his frequent concerts with the Juan José Landaeta and other orchestras of ‘El Sistema’. Vásquez has worked with world-class musicians such as Simon Rattle, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Pacho Flores, Truls Mork, Sol Gabetta, Sergio Tiempo, Ray Chen, Kolja Blacher, Veronika Eberle, James Ehnes, Elina Vähälä, Sergey Khachatryan, Liza Ferschtman, Arabella Steinbacher, Benjamin Schmid, Alexandra Soumm, Antoine Tamestit, Natalie Clein, Julian Steckel, Claudio Bohorquez, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Amanda Forsyth, Jamie Walton, Pei-Jee Ng, Jian Wang, Edicson Ruiz, Martin Grubinger, Kari Kriikku, Hakan Hardenberger, Tine Thing Helseth, Juan Ferrer, Reinhold Friedrich, Colin Currie, Simon Trpceski, Jonathan Biss, Kyrill Gerstein, Makoto Ozone, Håvard Gimse, Ingolf Wunder, Nicholas Hodges, Joseph Moog, Kristhyan Benitez, Kristiina Rokashevich, Bertrand Chamayou, Marianna Shirinyan, Lucas Jussen, Ole Kristian Dahl, Roland Pontinen, Igor Levit or Stefan Schulz.
