Perry So returns in the middle of the season to the podium of the Navarra Symphony, where he is Music and Artistic Director, to face a double program that he will offer in the usual subscription series at the Baluarte Auditorium in Pamplona on Thursday, February 29, and in the Auditorium of the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, within the program of the Musika/Música Festival, on Sunday, March 3. In both programs the Swedish soprano Camila Tilling acts as soloist, in the first, which is titled The Voice of the Earth, she will provide her voice to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which will be preceded by the absolute premiere of the work Climate Change, by Vicent Egea, commissioned by the Baluarte Foundation; in the second, as the protagonist of Francis Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, preceded by Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 6.
Perry So began his journey as Music and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony in the 2022/23 season, and starting next season he will combine with his new responsibility as Music Director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the city that hosts the University from Yale, one of the most prestigious in the world and where Perry earned a degree in Comparative Literature.
Perry So has worked with the orchestras of Cleveland and Minnesota, the symphonies of Houston, Detroit, New Jersey, Nürenberg, Israel and Shanghai, the Chinese Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest of The Hague and the Szezecin and Zagreb philharmonics. He has been a frequent guest at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as a Dudamel Conducting Fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He led the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Lang Lang in celebrating the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China at the close of his four-year term as Associate Conductor. In Spain he has conducted the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Malaga Philharmonic, Navarra Symphony, Murcia Region Symphony and Asturias Symphony.
He received First Prize and Special Prize at the 5th International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St. Petersburg. He has recorded extensively with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra. His recording of the Barber and Korngold violin concertos with Alexander Gilman and the Cape Town Philharmonic was awarded the Diapason D’Or in 2012. Known for the enormous range of repertoire he conducts, including numerous world premieres on four continents, he has conducted productions of Cosí fan tutte, The Magic Flute, The Turn of the Screw, Giulio Cesare, Gianni Schicchi, Eugene Oneguin or Die Fledermaus. He has been an assistant to Edo de Waart, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams.
Abraham Cupeiro presents his third album, MYTHOS, recorded for Loira Records at the Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dimas Ruiz. This album follows Os Sons Esquecidos (The Forgotten Sounds, 2017), with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, and Pangea (2020), also recorded with the Royal Philharmonic. Both were released by Warner Classics, and always with Dimas Ruiz as conductor.
Builder and multi-instrumentalist, Abraham Cupeiro recovers instruments that have been lost in time, which he uses to create new sounds and interweave them in other musics. As a performer, he stands out as one of the few people who plays the Karnyx (Celtic Iron Age trumpet). He is also the promoter of an ancestral instrument in the Galician tradition: the “corna”, an instrument that his grandfather played and that appears in the illuminations of Alfonso X, king of Castille.
Mythos
Amazonian mythology, ancient Chinese dragons, Nordic giants, gods and goddesses of Antiquity, sacred animals and Mother Nature. Arab, Celtic, Roman or Greek mythologies are the starting points from which Abraham Cupeiro takes the audience of MYTHOS to worlds and cities lost in time, such as the enigmatic Atlantis. Recovering the instruments that our ancestors played in Greek theaters, Roman circuses or caves lost at the ends of the world, he offers us a musical journey through stories created since time immemorial to find a logic to the origin of the universe. Abraham Cupeiro and his ancestral instruments will open the doors of the past for us and guide us on a journey through past civilizations to the moment when human beings first looked up to infinity. In MYTHOS we will discover, among other wonders, the sounds of the Aulos, one of the most represented instruments in Greek antiquity whose invention is attributed to the Goddess Athena, or those of the Cornu, rescued from the ashes of Pompeii. MYTHOS is being presented these days on a Galician tour with the Gaos Orchestra, with performances in Ferrol, Lugo and Santiago.
Abraham’s interest in organology has led him to obtain a collection of more than 200 instruments from all over the world and from different periods, that he shows through a concert-monologue under the name Resonando en el Pasado (Resounding in the past). Abraham recovers and builds various instruments, and performs with them today’s music, as well as mixes them with modern ensembles.
Christian Vásquez and Marina Heredia join the Philharmonic of the Republic of North Macedonia to offer a Spanish and Latin American program that includes four of the Canciones españolas antiguas compiled and harmonized by Federico García Lorca, in an original orchestration by José Trigueros (Anda, jaleo; Las morillas de Jaén; Cuatro Muleros and Sevillanas del siglo XVIII), El Amor Brujo and El Sombrero de Tres Picos, Suite nº 2, by Manuel de Falla, along with the suite from the ballet Estancia, by Alberto Ginastera. The concert will take place next Thursday, February 15, at the Skopje Philharmonic Hall.
Lorca’s songs in their present orchestration were premiered in December 2021 by Marina Heredia herself, together with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and José Trigueros at the baton, at the Ciudad de la Cultura in Santiago de Compostela. This performance under conductor Christian Vásquez will be the first outside of Spain. This coming April, again with Trigueros at the baton and together with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Marina will again perform these songs at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville.
This is the first time that Christian Vásquez and Marina Heredia will coincide for a symphonic project, although both of them have long careers with orchestras around the world. Last season, Marina Heredia, together with flamenco guitarist José Quevedo ‘Bolita’ and percussionist Paquito González as co-soloists, premiered a new work at the Mercatorhalle in Duisburg that adds to the symphonic repertoire for flamenco singer and symphony orchestra: In Freedom. The Journey of the Gipsies, a work composed by Quevedo himself together with Joan Albert Amargós, who also conducted the Duisburger Philharmoniker.
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Perry So has been appointed as its next Music Director. Perry will assume the title of Music Director beginning with the 2024-2025 season, succeeding Alasdair Neale, who will end his five-year tenure with the orchestra in May 2024. The announcement was made this morning at a press conference held at the Stetson Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. NHSO Board of Directors President Keith B. Churchwell, MD says: We are truly excited that Maestro So has agreed to join the NHSO as its Music Director beginning with our 2024-25 season. His ties to the New Haven area coupled with his expert musicianship and his great desire to invest in the New Haven community along multiple avenues will continue the work that has matured under Maestro Neale’s leadership over the past four years despite extremely challenging circumstances. We thank Alasdair for his wonderful work and residency with the Symphony and look forward in the coming years to Perry’s tenure with the NHSO!
Perry So is currently Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra. He served as Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Conducting Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Artistic Collaborator of the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain, and on the conducting faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. As a student at Yale University he founded an orchestra and led the undergraduate opera company. He received his training as a conductor initially under James Sinclair and subsequently with Gustav Meier at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and received First and Special Prizes at the International Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg, Russia. Perry says: I am deeply honored to be entrusted with the artistic leadership of the New Haven Symphony — the first US professional orchestra I heard when I arrived in this country when I was 18, in the city that my wife and I love and called home for a decade. When I came back this March to work with the orchestra, I encountered an artistically adventurous group of musicians motivated by a profound love for music and dedicated to serving the community. The commitment at every level of the organization to telling a fuller story of our unique American musical heritage than ever before — and doing so in a way that gives voice to those great talents who have been unjustly excluded — gives me great excitement for what we will be able to accomplish together in the years ahead. I look forward to conversations with all of our partners in the weeks and months ahead to learn how we can best serve the New Haven community together. Most of all, I look forward to the many moments of musical joy that we will share in the years to come.
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s search process began in 2021 with the formation of a search committee comprising NHSO Board Directors, musicians, and community leaders. After a rigorous screening process of more than 200 applicants from across the globe, the search committee invited four finalists, including So, to rehearse and conduct the orchestra. Throughout the audition process, the search committee received input from the orchestra’s musicians, audience members, community stakeholders, and administrative staff. We are thrilled to welcome Perry So as the next Music Director of the NHSO, says NHSO Concertmaster David Southorn. With his captivating presence on stage and inspiring performance this past spring, we are excited for the artistic journey that lies ahead under his leadership in New Haven.
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.
Pacho Flores and Hernández-Silva meet again for a joint debut and a double program with the Galician Symphony Orchestra, where Pacho is artist in residence this season. The first program will be part of the Easter workshop of the Galician Youth Symphony Orchestra and include Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, and Albares, a concert for flugelhorn by Pacho himself, together with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. This concert will take place at the Palacio de la Ópera de Coruña on April 9. The second program, a subscription concert, will feature Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1, Paquito de Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano and the world premiere of Altar de Bronce, a trumpet concerto by Gabriela Ortiz dedicated to Pacho and jointly commissioned by the OSG with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minería Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the San Diego Symphony. These concerts will take place at the Ferrol Auditorium and the Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña on April 13 and 14, respectively. A few days later, on April 18, Pacho will offer a chamber recital with the guitarist Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González within the season of the Philharmonic Society of A Coruña as part of his artistic residence with the OSG, performing the repertoire of his album ENTROPÍA. González will also participate as a cuatrista in D’Rivera’s work the previous week.
Gabriela Ortiz is one of the most prominent composers of today. She has received commissions from soloists and orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Britain, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Galician Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Minería, Kroumata and Amadinda Percussion Ensembles, Kronos Quartet, Latin American Quartet, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Quartet, Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, etc. Ortiz has been distinguished with the National Prize for Arts and Literature of Mexico, the Mexican Academy of Arts, the First Prize in the Silvestre Revueltas National Chamber Music Contest and the Alicia Urreta Composition Contest, or the Mozart Medal Award, among others.
Pacho Flores with Vicente Honorato, CEO of STOMVI
Altar de Bronce is the seventh trumpet concerto to emerge from the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concertos by prominent composers such as Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera, Roberto Sierra, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg, Daniel Freiberg and Gabriela Ortiz. A unique peculiarity of Pacho Flores’ concerts is the amount of instruments that he uses. In close collaboration with the R+D department of the STOMVI company, they have jointly developed new prototypes in various keys, all of them with four pistons. If the fourth piston alone manages to widen the tessitura of the instrument, the sum of several of these instruments with low, medium and high registers in each work multiplies both the range as well as the timbre and color in an extraordinary way, since he combines cornets, trumpets and flugelhorn. For these concerts with OSG, Pacho will use up to 10 different trumpets: C cornet, D cornet, soprano F cornet, soprano G cornet; Bb, C, A and D flugelhorns, C trumpet and D trumpet, distributed as follows: Arturo Márquez, C trumpet, Bb flugelhorn, soprano F cornet; Pacho Flores, C flugelhorn, low A flugelhorn and soprano D flugelhorn, (all of them new prototypes made specifically for this concert); Paquito D’Rivera, C cornet, C trumpet, soprano G cornet, Bb flugelhorn, soprano F cornet; Gabriela Ortiz, D cornet, Bb flugelhorn, C and D trumpets.
This is the list of orchestras that have participated in the project, with the names of the conductors and dates of premieres, either already performed or planned, and all of them, naturally, by Pacho Flores.
Arturo Márquez – Concierto de Otoño
National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, September 7 and 9, 2018; Tucson Symphony Orchestra (USA), José Luis Gómez, January 25 and 27, 2019; Hyogo PAC Orchestra (Japan), Michiyoshi Inoue, May 24, 25 and 26, 2019; Oviedo Filarmonía (Spain), Lucas Macías, August 14, 2019.
Paquito D’Rivera – Concerto Venezolano
Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, September 1, 2019; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), Domingo Hindoyan, November 11 and 14, 2021; Valencia Orchestra (Spain), Hernández-Silva, February 3, 2022; San Diego Symphony (USA), Rafael Payare, February 25, 26 and March 2, 2022.
Roberto Sierra – Salseando
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Domingo Hindoyan, January 9, 2020; Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia (Spain), Hernández-Silva, December 17, 2020; Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo (Brazil), Carlos Miguel Prieto, March 31, April 1 and 2, 2022; Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine (France), Hernández-Silva, June 3, 2022.
Daniel Freiberg – Historias de Flores y Tangos
Oviedo Filarmonía (Spain), Lucas Macías, October 23, 2021; Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, August 20 and 21, 2022; Arctic Philharmonic (Norway), Hernández-Silva, March 16 and 17, 2023; Walla Walla Symphony (USA), Yaacob Bergman, May 2, 2023.
Efraín Oscher – Danzas Latinas
Royal Philharmonic of Galicia (Spain), Hernández-Silva; November 21 and 22, 2019.
Gabriela Ortiz – Altar de Bronce
Galician Symphony Orchestra (Spain), Hernández-Silva; April 14 and 15, 2023; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), D. Hindoyan; July 8, 2023; Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, August 19 and 20, 2023; New World Symphony (USA), Carlos M. Prieto; February 9 and 10, 2024; San Diego Symphony (USA), Rafael Payare, February 16 and 17, 2024.
Christian Lindberg – Caballos Mágicos
Royal Philharmonia of Galicia (Spain), Paul Daniel, May 27 and 28, 2021; Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Sweden), Christian Lindberg, September 30, 2021; Central Ohio Symphony (USA), Jaime Morales, March 17, 2024; Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), Christian Lindberg, 2024/25 season.
D. Freiberg, A. Márquez, P. D’Rivera, P. Flores and C. M. Prieto during the recording of ESTIRPE for Deutsche Grammophon
In addition, throughout this period Pacho Flores has also premiered other concerts that some composers have written for him on their own initiative or that have been commissioned by other orchestras in parallel to this project: Pacho Flores: Cantos y revueltas (11/12/13 January 2018, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Hernández-Silva); Giancarlo Castro: Stunning Trumpet (February 23, 2018, Ulster Orchestra, Rafael Payare); Alain Trudel: Preach, pour trumpette et orchestre (March 14, 2018, Orchester Symphonique de Laval, Alain Trudel); Efraín Oscher: Apex, Double concerto for clarinet and trumpet (August 31, 2018, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Markus Bosch); Daniel Freiberg: Latin American Chronicles (4/5/6 January 2019, Het Gelders Orkest, Christian Vásquez); Christian Lindberg: Un sueño morisco, double concerto for trumpet and trombone (March 21/22, 2019, RTVE Orchestra, Christian Lindberg); Arturo Sandoval: Trumpet Concerto (July 11, 2019, Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, Enrique Diemecke); Eleanor Alberga: Invocation (20 September 2021, London Schools Symphony Orchestra, Peter Ash); Pacho Flores: Heterónimos, concertino for trumpet (April 24, 2022, Symphony of the Region of Murcia, Flores; Albares, concert for flugelhorn, April 29, 2022, Tenerife Symphony, Christian Vásquez); Igmar Alderete: Mambí, Concerto for trumpet and orchestra (June 16 and 17, 2022, Orquesta de Córdoba, Carlos Domínguez-Nieto); Sonia Morales: Divertimento Caribeño, No. 6 (March 17, 2024, Central Ohio Symphony, Jaime Morales); Tuomas Turriago: Trumpet Concerto (April 5, 2024, Tampere Philharmonia, Christian Vásquez). Other concerts are currently being created by composers such as Alonso Toro, Mauricio González Brito or Igmar Alderete.
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