Manuel Hernández-Silva conducts the opening concert of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra season at the Teatro Colón next Saturday, March 25, with a program that includes the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 by Brahms, with Sergei Dogadin as soloist, and Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 by the same composer. This is the first of the two concerts that Hernández-Silva will conduct this season at the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, where he will return again on July 1 to perform Mozart’s Sinfonía Concertante for Viola and Violin, Diarios VI, by Gerardo Gandini, and Redes, by Silvestre Revueltas.
Hernández-Silva has recently conducted the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, all of them with several premieres, such as the trumpet concertos by Roberto Sierra and Daniel Freiberg, the Boceto Sinfónico by Manuel Moreno Buendía, Musas y Resuello and Cantos y Revueltas by Pacho Flores, Lágrimas de Tahuarí by Gabriel Sivak, or Rapsodia Latina by Gonzalo Grau, along with other repertoire works by Tchaikovsky, Bernstein, Ginastera, Ravel, Saint-Saëns or Piazzolla. After this concert in Argentina, Hernández-Silva will return to Spain for a two-week stay with the Galician Symphony Orchestra, with which, together with works by Kalinnikov and Tchaikovsky, he will again premiere new pieces such as Altar de Bronce, the trumpet concerto that Gabriela Ortiz has written for Pacho Flores as a shared commission between the Galician Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Orquesta de Minería in Mexico, the New World Symphony and the San Diego Symphony orchestras.
In Galicia, the first week includes the workshop of the Galician Youth Symphony Orchestra, a task of particular interest to Hernández-Silva, who was Music and Artistic Director of the Andalusian Youth Orchestra and has recently conducted the Orchestra of Musikene (Higher School of Music of the Basque Country). Upcoming commitments include orchestras from Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Sweden, Poland, Singapore and Spain.
Manuel Hernández-Silva, Pacho Flores and Leo Rondón come together again for several new premieres, this time with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, with which Pacho recorded his third album for Deutsche Grammophon, Fractales (2018), under the baton of Christian Lindberg. Two works by Pacho Flores will see the World premiere of their new version for full orchestra on this occasion: Musas y Resuello, a divertimento originally conceived for brass ensemble, premiered in 2021 by the Bogota Philharmonic Brass Ensemble, and Cantos y Revueltas, originally written for trumpet, Venezuelan Cuatro and strings. The latter was premiered by the same protagonists and the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in January 2018, a premiere that was recorded for the homonymous album (2019), also for the yellow label. The concerts will take place on March 16 and 17 at the Kulturhus in Tromsø and at the Stormen Konserthus in Bodø respectively, both at 7:00 p.m.
Historias de Flores y Tangos by Daniel Freiberg will be a premiere in Norway as well. Also part of the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts promoted by Pacho Flores, this piece has already seen its Spanish and Mexican premieres with the Oviedo Filarmonía and the Minería Symphony Orchestra conducted by their respective Music Directors, Lucas Macías and Carlos Miguel Prieto. Historias de Flores y Tangos will conclude its cycle of premieres this spring with the US Walla Walla Symphony under Yaakov Bergman. The program with the Arctic Philharmonic also includes Estancia ballet suite, by Alberto Ginastera.
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The following week, Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores take similar roads, as one goes to Argentina to open the concert season of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic while the other goes to Chile to play with the National Symphony Orchestra. Shortly afterwards, their paths will cross again at the Galician Symphony Orchestra in a double program that includes the World premiere of Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, together with the revival of other concerts that have already been premiered, such as the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, the Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, both of which also make part of the aforementioned project of shared commissions, and Albares, the flugelhorn concerto by Pacho Flores himself.
Further coincidences will take place, since Hernández-Silva and Leo Rondón will meet again with the National Symphony of Colombia for the World premiere of Concierto del Mar, for Venezuelan Cuatro and orchestra, composed by Leo himself. Next season holds even more appointments and premieres from Sweden to Singapore and from Poland to Spain, which will be announced in due course.
Manuel Hernández-Silva makes yet another debut with a French national orchestra, this time the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, after his debut last June with the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine. Just arrived from the US after conducting two concerts with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, in which he conducted the American premiere of works by Manuel Moreno Buendía and Roberto Sierra, Manuel Hernández-Silva will lead the orchestra in five concerts that will take place in Nantes and the Loire region between 4 and 12 March. In addition to the absolute premieres of Gonzalo Grau and Gabriel Sivak, commissioned by the ONPL, the program also includes works by Saint-Saëns, Piazzolla, Ravel and Aldemaro Romero, with the violinist Alexis Cárdenas and his quartet as soloists.
After his return to France, Hernández-Silva will debut the following week with the Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic in Bodø and Tromsø, where he will once again conduct several premieres. Two works by Pacho Flores will be World premieres: Musas y resuello, originally conceived for Brass Ensemble, and Cantos y Revueltas, for trumpet, Venezuelan cuatro and strings in their original composition; as well as the Norwegian premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos, trumpet concerto by Daniel Freiberg. This piece, along with works by other prominent composers such as Arturo Márquez, Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Efraín Oscher, Gabriela Ortiz or Christian Lindberg, is part of the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concertos promoted by Pacho Flores, in which Hernández-Silva has a fundamental role participating in up to five premieres (D’Rivera, Sierra, Freiberg, Oscher and Ortiz) and further renditions of these and other concertos.
Right after this, Manuel Hernández-Silva will travel to Argentina to conduct the opening concert of the symphonic season of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón, in a program that includes Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann and his Symphony No. 1. Back in Spain, he will spend two weeks in A Coruña for his debut with the Galician Symphony Orchestra, with the World premiere of Altar de Bronce, Gabriela Ortiz’s trumpet concerto, Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano, whose Spanish premiere he conducted with the Valencia Orchestra last February 2022, and Vassili Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1. Along with this debut, he will conduct another concert with the Galician Youth Symphony Orchestra, again with Pacho Flores as soloist, in a program that includes the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, Albares, a concert for flugelhorn by Flores himself, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Later commitments will take him to Colombia, Argentina, Chile, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Singapore, etc.
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.
Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores meet once again, this time together with the Tucson Symphony, to offer the US premiere of Salseando, the trumpet concerto that Roberto Sierra wrote for Pacho. Commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia in Spain, and Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Hernández-Silva himself was in charge of its Spanish and French premieres with the latter two. Boceto Sinfónico, by maestro Manuel Moreno Buendía, will also be premiered in the US, and the program will be completed with the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, by Bernstein, and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.
The history of collaborations between Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores is so long that it would occupy several pages, but due to their relevance it is worth noting the World premieres of Cantos y Revueltas, by Pacho Flores himself, or Danzas Latinas, by Efraín Oscher, both with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia; the aforementioned premiere of Salseando, by Sierra, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia and the National Symphony of Bordeaux-Aquitaine; the premiere of the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera with the Orquesta de València; and the upcoming premieres of Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, with the Arctic Philharmonic of Norway next March, and Altar de Bronce, trumpet concert by Gabriela Ortiz, with the Sinfónica de Galicia next April. Hernández-Silva is also responsible for conducting the fourth album by Pacho Flores for Deutsche Grammophon, entitled Cantos y Revueltas, together with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, which also includes the participation of Leo Rondón as a cuatrista.
In Spain, Hernández-Silva and Pacho Flores have already played together with the aforementioned Real Filharmonía, Región de Murcia and Valencia orchestras, as well as with the Málaga Philharmonic, the Navarra Symphony, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic and the Extremadura Orchestra, and will soon have a double performance with the Sinfónica de Galicia.
Christian Vásquez and Robert Lakatoš will work together for the first time this coming February 10, with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic to offer a program that includes Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Lakatoš recently offered this same concert in Spain together with Manuel Hernández-Silva and the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia. Vásquez is coming off garnering extraordinary reviews leading the Orchestre Pasdeloup and assisting Gustavo Dudamel in Tristán and Isolde at the Paris Opera, where he will return in April to direct a ballet performances.
Robert Lakatoš grew up in a musical family and began his studies at the age of seven in his hometown of Novi Sad at the hands of his father, Imre Lakatoš. He was the youngest student to graduate from the Novi Sad Academy of Arts, where he studied under renowned pedagogue Dejan Mihailović. He continued his training at the Zurich University of the Arts with Rudolf Koelman, where he received a Swiss Lyra Foundation Scholarship for Exceptionally Gifted Musicians, and has attended study programs with leading international violinists such as Aaron Rosand at the New York Summit Music Festival, and Julian Rachlin at the Vienna University of Music and Arts. Robert won first prize at the Pablo Sarasate Competition in Pamplona (2015), as well as previously first prize at the Mary Smart Concerto Competition (New York, 2013), and the prestigious Andrea Postacchini (Fermo, Italy, 2012) or Juventudes Musicals from Romania, who opened the doors to his international career on the main stages of the world.
Christian Vásquez has been Music Director of the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, which he conducted on a notable tour of Europe that took them to London, Lisbon, Toulouse, Munich, Stockholm and Istanbul. He has also been Principal Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra between 2013 and 2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Het Gelders Orkest from 2015 to 2020. Following his debut with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in 2009, Christian Vásquez was named its Principal Guest Conductor between 2010 and 2013. He has worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, Orchester de la Suisse Romande, Vienna Radio Symphony, Salzburg Camerata, Russian State Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony. In North America he has conducted the National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, during his participation in their Young Artist Fellowship Program. He has worked with orchestras such as the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse, Symphony of Galicia, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Prague Radio Symphony, Warsaw Beethoven Festival, Turku Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony, Poznan Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Mexico National, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Basel Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Estonian National, Gran Canaria Philharmonic or Ireland TEN National. His first operatic engagement in Europe was at the Norwegian Opera with Carmen. Upcoming engagements include the Opéra National de Paris as Gustavo Dudamel’s assistant and concerts in Poland, Spain, Norway, Israel, Korea and the US.
