Perry So, who begins his tenure as Musical Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra on July 1, will now lead the orchestra this coming Saturday, June 15 at 8:00 p.m. in the formation’s annual collaboration with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, ARTIDEA, which will take place on the open-air stage of the New Haven Green. The festive program involves a diverse roster of collaborators including Hillhouse Marching Band, NHSO concertmaster David Southorn, Hanan Hameen and the Juneteenth Coalition, vocalist Carly Callahan, St. Lukes Steel Band, erhu (the traditional Chinese violin) soloist Joy Lu, or the Spanish Community of Wallingford Mariachi Band and Dancers. Perry So has just launched the 2024/25 season of the Navarra Symphony, his third at the helm of the formation, while announcing his renewal as chief and artistic director starting in August 2025.
The fourth-oldest orchestra in America, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s exceptional and accessible performances and education programs reach more than 40,000 audience members and 20,000 students each year. Innovative programming and a dedication to the commission of new works inspires deeper audience engagement and meaningful artistic and educational collaborations. Through the nationally-acclaimed Harmony Fellowship program, as well as numerous award-winning education and community engagement programs, the Symphony strives to be a leader for racial equity in the arts.
Perry So was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola and composition. He later graduated in Comparative Literature from Yale University with a specialization in 20th-century Central European music and literature. During that period he founded an academic orchestra and conducted lyrical productions with graduating students. In 2008 he studied conducting at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the tutelage of Maestro Gustav Meier, receiving First Prize and Special Prize at the 5th Edition of the Prokofiev International Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg. After this recognition he was named Assistant Conductor and then Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and later he was part of the Dudamel fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and since then he has conducted some of the most important American, European and Asian orchestras. Since the 2022/23 season he has been Music and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony and since next June he is the new Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
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 and Leo Rondón meet with the Tenerife Symphony to offer the Concerto del Mar for Venezuelan Cuatro and orchestra, it will be next Friday, May 24 at the Adán Martín Auditorium in Tenerife. This concert had a pre-premiere with an instrumental ensemble formed by musicians from the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia in April 2022 and had its absolute premiere in its final version in May 2023 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia under the direction by Hernández-Silva, so this performance in Tenerife is his true premiere in Spain. Next season, programming is already planned for the seasons of a Spanish and a Polish orchestra, which will be announced in due course. In addition, Vásquez will conduct the Tenerife Symphony with Antrópolis by Gabriela Ortiz, Santa Cruz de Pacairigua, by Evencio Castellanos, and Estancia: Cuatro danzas, op. 8a by Alberto Ginastera.
In this work by Rondón, canonically organized in three movements; Parranda velera, Punto de Cruces and Estribillo de los Pescadores, highlight some of the most popular rhythms of Venezuela, such as the merengue, the parranda, the waltz and the joropo with an oriental chorus, where the four is exploited from its initial conception as a rhythmic accompaniment. to the enormous palette of possibilities that an entire generation of virtuoso Cuatro players have been able to incorporate into the instrument in recent years, integrating it into the symphonic repertoire thanks to contributions from composers such as Gonzalo Grau, Orlando Cardozo, Leonardo Lozano, Juan Carlos Sanz, etc.
After the premiere of his Concerto del Mar, Rondón is already finishing the composition of a new concerto for Cuatro and orchestra titled Concerto del Llano, which will be the second of a trilogy. He will also continue his work in the artistic organization of the PAAX GNP Festival, chaired by the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra and which will take place again in June 2024 in the Riviera Maya of Mexico. He continues working with the maestro Alexis Cárdenas and his quartet, and with a duo with the French pianist Thomas Enhco, with whom he published an album with the Chilean tenor Emiliano González Toro, in tribute to the singer Violeta Parra. Known as Leo Rondón, Leonidas Rondón (Guama, Yaracuy, 1984), who was a prominent participant with a podium at the La Siembra del Cuatro Festival in Venezuela, has collaborated with the Quatuor Debussy, L’Arpeggiata by Christina Pluhar and the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. Also with orchestras such as the Arctic Philharmonic of Norway, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchester National de l’Ile de France, Symphony of the Region of Murcia, Orchestra of Valencia, Symphony of Castilla y León, Orchestra of Extremadura, Symphony of Navarra, Tunisia Symphony Orchestra or Malaga Philharmonic. For years he organized, together with maestro Cristóbal Soto, the Venezuelan Creole Music Summer Course, a Venezuelan music teaching camp in the city of Mirecourt, France. He is currently carrying out his solo project, Leo Rondón Project.
Marina Heredia returns to the Galician Symphony for a two-week stay in which she will present a double program: On May 16 and 17 she will sing El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla in the auditoriums of Ferrol and Pontevedra, and the following week, on the 24th and 25th, already at the Palacio de la Ópera de Coruña, she will star in the Spanish premiere of En LIbertad! El camino de los gitanos (In Freedom! The journey of the Gipsies), a work composed together by José Quevedo ‘Bolita’ and Joan Albert Amargós, in which she shares solo roles with Quevedo himself on flamenco guitar and Paquito González on percussion. Both programs will be conducted by maestro Jose Trigueros, who also conducted she on two other previous visits to the Galician Symphony in which the Canciones Españolas Antiguas, compiled and harmonized by Federico García Lorca and orchestrated by Trigueros himself, were performed. In freedom! is the result of a commission from the Duisburger Philharmoniker, with which it was premiered in July 2023.
Marina Heredia is definitely the most demanded singer internationally for this repertoire, only in the last two seasons she could be seen at the Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie of Berlin together with the Berlin Radio Symphony and Pablo Heras-Casado; the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin for a project with mandolinist Avi Avital, in the Laieszhalle of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg for the Martha Argerich Festival, or the Lausitz Festival in Görlitz.
Marina has sung with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Orchester National de Lille, Orquestra Sinfônica da Casa da Música de Porto, the Rouen Opera or the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with which he recorded El Amor Brujo under the direction 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 Navarra Symphony under the baton of Perry So, RTVE under the direction, again, of Hernández-Silva, the Symphony of the Region of Murcia with Roberto Forés or the North Macedonia Philharmonic with Christian Vásquez
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.
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