American conductor of Hong Kong origin Perry So has been appointed as the new Musical and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, a position in which he succeeds Manuel Hernández-Silva. With an initial three-year contract, which will be effective from September 1, 2022, maestro Perry So has been the orchestra’s favorite in the polls. According to the statement from the orchestra itself, the choice of Maestro So has been the product of a rigorous participatory process that has lasted for several months. It began last year with a first phase of consultations and proposals submitted for consideration by the Orchestra, after whose decision the Board of Trustees of Fundación Baluarte proceeded to approve the candidacy… in the choice of maestro So “other criteria have also weighed in addition to his talent as a director, such as his wide and varied curriculum, his international projection and his artistic concerns”.
Conductor Perry So was born in Hong Kong in 1982, where he received early musical training in piano, organ, violin, viola, and composition. He later earned a BA 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 the graduates. In 2008 he studied conducting at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore under the tutelage of Maestro Gustav Meier, receiving the First Prize and the Special Prize at the 5th Edition of the St. Petersburg Prokofiev International Conducting Competition. After this recognition he was appointed Assistant Director and then Associate Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and later he will be invited to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra.
Having already consolidated his presence on five continents, Perry So has recently debuted with the San Francisco Symphony and has occupied the pits of the Royal Danish Opera -The Magic Flute- and the Yale Opera -Eugene Onegin- as opera director. Among the latest milestones in his career, three important tours stand out: a tour of Milan conducting the Nuremberg Symphony, another through the Balkans in 2013 with the Zagreb Philharmonic, and a third seven-week tour of South Africa conducting three orchestras in which he performed Verdi’s Requiem in the framework of the South African National Arts Festival.
Besides these projects and invitations, Perry So has conducted more than 30 orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra of Wales, the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, the New Zealand Symphony, the Shanghai Symphony, the Residentie Orkest of The Hague or the London Philharmonic, as well as half a dozen Spanish orchestras. He has also served as assistant to such renowned teachers as Edo de Waart, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel and John Adams.
Perry So is a member of the Music Conducting faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and also has a large body of recordings to his credit leading the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Concert Orchestra, repeatedly earning recognition from the criticism and being laureate in 2021 with the Diapason d’Or.
Manuel Hernández-Silva makes his debut conducting the OSESP, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by soprano Beatriz Díaz, tenor César Gutiérrez and guitarist Rafael Aguirre with three concerts on May 19, 20 and 21 at the Sala São Paulo, usual venue of the orchestra. The programme, entirely dedicated to Spanish music, includes Falla’s Suite No. 2 of El Sombrero de Tres Picos, the guitar concerts Concierto para una fiesta and Concierto de Aranjuez, which alternate, and a zarzuela gala that includes orchestra excerpts, arias and duets by Jesús Guridi, Reveriano Soutullo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Pablo Sorozábal, Ruperto Chapí, Gerónimo Giménez, Manuel Fernández Caballero, Manuel Penella and Federico Chueca.
With the Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Hernández-Silva has already conducted all the great Latin American orchestras such as the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, of which he was the principal guest conductor, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Teatro Colón, the Bogotá Philharmonic or the National Symphony Orchestras. from Chile, Mexico, Colombia or Puerto Rico. His debut with the Orchester National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine will also take place shortly, and upcoming invitations include the Tucson Symphony, Orquesta de Valencia, Sinfónica de Galicia, Arctic Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchester National du Pays du Loire, National Cyprus Orchestra, etc.
Since she was invited by Riccardo Muti to sing Paisiello’s Missa Defunctorum at the Salzburg Festival or the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the role of Diana de Iphigénie in Aulide for the Rome Opera, performances of Beatriz Díaz have been successful in great national coliseums such as the Teatro de la Zarzuela and the Real in Madrid, Arriaga and Euskalduna in Bilbao, Maestranza in Seville, Palacio Carlos V in Granada, Cervantes in Malaga, Baluarte and Gayarre in Pamplona, Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas, Jovellanos in Gijón or Campoamor in Oviedo and on notable international stages such as La Fenice in Venice, Carlo Felice in Genoa, Massimo in Palermo, Comunale in Bologna and Modena, Châtelet in Paris and Colón in Buenos Aires. Likewise, Díaz took part in exclusive concerts held in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Doha, Rabat or Tokyo, among other cities.
Winner of the first prize at the Hilde Zadek international singing competition in Passau, as well as the First Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the María Callas International Singing Competition in Athens, Gutiérrez has sung at the Opéra de la Bastille, Liceu, Opéra de Rome, Staatsoper Berlin, Volksoper and Staatsoper of Vienna, Theater an der Wien, Opera de Montecarlo, Leipzig, Munich or Helsinki, as well as in Tokyo, Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Lima and Bogotá. Her repertoire includes more than 35 operas, from Handel’s Acis & Galatea to Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires. He has sung with directors such as Ricardo Muti, Armin Jordan, Gidon Kremer, Gustavo Dudamel or Hernández-Silva, and under the stage direction of Michael Hampe, Philippe Arlaud, Hugo de Ana or Jorge Lavelli, in addition to the Lied and oratorio repertoire.
Pacho Flores begins an American tour that will bring him to Chicago, IL, Portland, ME, and Delaware, OH, after an intense period in which he has performed the Spanish and USA premieres of Paquito D’Rivera’s new trumpet concerto, Concerto Venezolano, with the Valencia and San Diego orchestras; the South American premiere of Roberto Sierra’s new trumpet concerto, Salseando, with the Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil; his Spanish debut as a conductor with the Murcia Symphony orchestra premiering Leo Rondón’s Concierto de Mar, new concerto for Venezuelan cuatro and orchestra, as well as two of his new compositions, Heterónimos, for trumpet and small orchestra, and Preludio and Fugue for Strings; and the absolute premiere of his own Albares, Concerto for flugelhorn, releasing three new prototypes of flugelhorns, with the Tenerife Symphony, besides other important concerts in Spain with the Castilla y León Symphony and the Gran Canaria Philharmonic. This American tour includes a chamber concert for the Music Institute of Chicago, Pacho’s debut with the Portland Symphony playing Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño under Josep Caballé-Domenech, and his largely postponed debut with the Ohio Central Symphony and his friend Jaime Morales, in which Pacho will perform Neruda’s Concerto for corno da caccia as well as Márquez’s concerto.
Shortly after this, he will play the French premiere of Sierra’s Salseando with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine under Manuel Hernández-Silva, and the absolute premiere of Igmar Alderete’s Concierto Mambí with the Orquesta de Córdoba led by its principal conductor Carlos Domínguez-Nieto. This will be prior to his engagement with Alondra de la Parra and her project The Impossible Orchestra; his three appearances as a Resident Artist in La Virée Classique (The Classical Spree) of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on his triple role as soloist, conductor and composer; and his performance on the premiere of Daniel Freiberg’s new trumpet concerto, Historias de Flores y Tangos, with the Minería Symphony Orchestra under Carlos Miguel Prieto, with whom Pacho will also launch his last recording for Deutsche Grammophon, which already includes some of these new trumpet concertos dedicated to him by Arturo Márquez and Paquito D’Rivera, together with Efrain Oscher’s Concierto Mestizo and Daniel Freiberg’s Latin American Chronicles.
Pacho Flores, Leo Rondón and Manuel Hernández-Silva meet again, this time together with the Gran Canaria Philmarmonic Orchestra, to offer a program that includes Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1 and two trumpet concerts: the Concerto Venezolano, by Paquito D’ Rivera, and Cantos y Revueltas, by Pacho himself. The concert will take place at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas on Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 p.m. These two trumpet concerts have several things in common, such as the fact that they were composed for a wide range of instruments of the trumpet family that include trumpets, cornets and flugelhorns, all with four pistons and manufactured by STOMVI: cornet in C, trumpet in C, cornet in G, flugelhorn in B flat and cornet in F for the Concerto Venezolano, and flugelhorn in B flat, cornet in D and trumpet in C for Cantos y Revueltas, which means that Pacho comes on stage with 6 different instruments.
Another thing both works have in common is the presence of the Venezuelan cuatro; in the case of D’Rivera, integrated as part of the orchestra, and in the case of Flores, as co-soloist with the trumpet —not in in vain this piece bears the subtitle Fantasia concertante for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings. Rondón is one of the most outstanding virtuosi of this instrument and has collaborated with ensembles such as the Quatuor Debussy, L’Arpeggiata by Christina Pluhar or the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, as well as with orchestras such as the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de l’Ile de France, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Valencia Orchestra, Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, Navarre Symphony Orchestra, Tunisia Symphony Orchestra or Malaga Philharmonic, and he will soon debut with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic. Future engagements will take him to Sweden and Norway.
The Concerto Venezolano is a joint commission between the Minería Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Valencia Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, which have premiered it under the baton of conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto, Domingo Hindoyan, Manuel Hernández-Silva and Rafael Payare, respectively. Cantos y Revueltas was premiered by the Real Filharmonía de Galicia and Manuel Hernández-Silva, and is the main work on the homonymous album by Deutsche Grammophon.
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.
Pacho Flores conducts the absolute premiere of Leo Rondón’s Concierto del mar for Venezuelan cuatro and orchestra, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, on Sunday, April 24. This is probably the first or one of the first concerts for Venezuelan cuatro and orchestra ever written. The cuatro, a descendent of the guitar, smaller in size and with four strings (hence its name, cuatro), is an instrument of Venezuelan and Colombian popular music, although there are some differences between one and the other. In recent years and thanks to a brilliant generation of performers, among whom Leo Rondón stands out, this instrument has been gaining presence in the orchestral music scene. Pacho Flores himself gave it an important presence in his work Cantos y Revueltas, fantasia concertante for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings, in which Rondón was in charge of the cuatro solo part, and which both recorded together for Deutsche Grammophon with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia under Manuel Hernández-Silva.
Leo Rondón has a long history of collaborations and has worked with ensembles such as Quatuor Debussy, Christina Pluhar’s L’Arpeggiata or the Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón, as well as with orchestras such as the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de l’Ile de France, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Valencia Orchestra, Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, Navarre Symphony Orchestra, Tunisia Symphony Orchestra or the Malaga Philharmonic, and he will soon make his debut with the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, with future commitments in Sweden and Norway. Naturally, he also keeps one foot in traditional music, collaborating with the Alexis Cárdenas quartet and other ensembles. Concierto del mar is his first symphonic work.
Pacho, for his part, has already some experience as a conductor and he is increasingly delving deeper into this facet. He has conducted the International Trumpet Guild Festival Orchestra in San Antonio, Texas; the Kammerensemble Konsonanz of Bremen in the recording of trumpeter Fabio Brum’s album EGREGORE for Naxos, in which he also acts as musical producer; or the Brass Ensemble of the Bogotá Philharmonic. Pacho is also an active composer. In addition to the aforementioned Cantos y Revueltas, other compositions include Musas y Resuello, for brass ensemble and percussion and premiered in Bogotá; Heterónimos, for trumpet and small orchestra, included in the album by Fabio Brum and which, together with Preludio y Fuga for strings, will have its absolute premiere at this concert in Murcia; or Albares, the new concerto for flugelhorn that will be premiered next April with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra under Christian Vásquez, in addition to other works recorded on his album ENTROPÍA such as Morocota,Labios vermelhos, etc.
