Pacho Flores, premiere in Santiago with Hernández-Silva

Pacho Flores, premiere in Santiago with Hernández-Silva

Trumpet player Pacho Flores and conductor Manuel Hernández-Silva will premiere Pacho Flores’ new composition, Cantos y revueltas, with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia in Santiago, Vigo and Coruña on next January the 11th, 12th and 13th, 2018. The piece, for solo trumpet, strings and ‘Venezuelan cuatro’, is based on folk tunes and work chants of the reach Venezuelan folklore. They will be supported by cuatro player Leo Rondón. Besides the premier, Pacho will also play Neruda’s Concerto for corno da caccia, and Villalobos’ Aria, from the Brazilian Bachiana nº 5.

composición de fotos de pacho flores y manuel hernández-silva

In the second part of the program, Hernández-Silva conducts Revueltas’ Redes and Ginastera’s Dances from the Ballet Estancia. Manuel, Chief Conductor of the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, has been recently designated new Chief Conductor of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra. Hernández-Silva, who have received outstanding ovations in his debut with the Spanish National Orchestra, will follow an intense guest conducting activity visiting the Orquesta de Extremadura and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra; and conducting Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte in the Teatro Cervantes in Malaga.

After Santiago, Pacho will play again Efraín Oscher’s Concierto Mestizo and Christian Lindberg’s Akban Bunka, with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alondra de la Parra. Pacho premiered the Concierto Mestizo in 2010 in Caracas with Domingo García Hindoyan and the Simón Bolívar Orchestra, and since then he played it more than 25 times all along the world, as in the opening concert of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra season on past October under Perry So. In February the 23rd, Pacho will play another world premiere, the new Trumpet Concerto by Giancarlo Castro, dedicated to him, with Rafael Payare and the Ulster Orchestra.

pacho flores composición portadas y premio

Deeply committed with the expansion of solo trumpet repertoire, Pacho is developing an ambitious project of shared commissions for new trumpet concertos to outstanding composer such as Arturo Márquez, Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Efraín Oscher and Christian Lindberg, to be premiered all around the world along the season 18/19 and following. First of these commissions, Arturo Márquez’s one, will be played eight times between October 2018 and August 2019 in Mexico, USA, Japan and Spain.

 

 

 

Hernández-Silva, Chief Conductor in Navarra

Hernández-Silva, Chief Conductor in Navarra

Spanish-Venezuelan Maestro Manuel Hernández-Silva has been designated Musical and Artistic Director of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra since season 2018/19. Contract will have a duration of three seasons and will begin on September the 1st of 2018. Hernández-Silva is a well known conductor in Navarra as he conducted the orchestra four times before, two of them on the past 2016/17 season: a series concert with music by Shostakovich; and Haendel’s Messiah to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the prestigious Pamplona Chamber Choir. 

Hernández-Silva is current Musical and Artistic Director of the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra and held the same position formerly in Murcia Symphony Orchestra and Cordoba Orchestra, as well as Music Director of the Andalusia Youth Orchestra, all in Spain, and he was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra. Manuel studied at the Vienna Superior Conservatory, where he earned his degree with honours, under the direction of Reinchard Schwarz and Georg Mark. From then, his career has brought him to all Europe, North and Latin America and Asia. Resident in Spain since 2005, he is also guest often to the most important Spanish orchestras. Between his recent and next engagements, stand out his debuts with the Spanish National Orchestra and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, his return to the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and Medellin Philharmonic, or, back in Spain, the Royal Galicia Filharmonia or Extremadura Orchestra, as well as his debut in both theatres Cervantes in Malaga and Villamarta in Jerez conducting Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte.

Ensayo de Manuel Hernández-Silva con la academia de Estudios Orquestales

Deeply committed with pedagogy, he has worked with the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, the Barcelona Youth Orchestra, the Orchestral Practice Workshop of the Baremboim-Said Foundation and, in a more straight way as he was its Musical Director, with the Andalusia Youth Orchestra. He is also often guest to lectures and master classes, and he uses to organise and teach courses of orchestra conducting.

 

 

 

Hernández-Silva, Chief Conductor in Navarra

Hernández-Silva with the Spanish National Orchestra

Hernández-Silva will conduct the Spanish National Orchestra next Saturday, October, the 14th, in the opening concert of Auditorio de Alicante’s Symphonic Season, that will host other conductors such Valery Gergiev or Fabio Luisi, and orchestras like Philharmonia Zürich and Mariinski Theatre Orchestra. Program: Gershwin’s Cuban overture, Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for two timpanists, with soloists Xavier Eguillor and Julien Bourgeois; and Shostakovich’s 12th Symphony.

Hernández-Silva

Manuel Hernández-Silva conducted in several great international festivals, and he is a frequent guest of Spanish and foreign orchestras. He has been principal conductor of the Córdoba Orchestra; principal guest conductor of the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Caracas, with which he worked intensively for over five years; and musical director of the Youth Orchestra of Andalucía. He is currently chief conductor and artist director of the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio, Mulhouse Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Nord Czech Philharmonic, Olomouc Philharmonic, National of Mexico,Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Chile National Orchestra, Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, Caracas Symphony Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic, Rheinische Philharmonie, and the major orchestras in Spain.

Hernández-Silva Spanish National Orchestra Alicante

Maestro Hernández Silva has undertaken an intense teaching activity, teaching internationally on conducting and performing, as well as numerous conferences. All this has earned him the recognition of the musicians with whom he has worked, as well as that of the audience and specialized critics. Manuel Hernández-Silva earned his degree from Vienna’s Superior Conservatory (Konservatorium der Stadt Wien) with honors, under Professors Reinhard Schwarz and Georg Mark. In his senior year he won the Forum Jünger Künstler Conducting Competition, convened by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, which he conducted in the Austrian capital’s Konzerthaus.

 

 

 

Ira Levin conducts Parsifal at the Sofia Opera opening

Ira Levin conducts Parsifal at the Sofia Opera opening

The American conductor Ira Levin has been named as the principal guest conductor of the Sofia Opera, beginning in the 2017-18 season. Levin has already conducted on the Sofia stage Verdi’s Requiem in April 2017, and on 1 October, at 16 h, he will open the new season with the newest production of Bulgarian first opera theatre. With the Sofia ensemble and orchestra, he will conduct Wagner’s complete “Ring of the Nibelung” tetralogy in May, 2018 at the legendary Bolschoi Theater in Moscow – the first performances of the “Ring” there for over a century, followed by the entire cycle in Sofia in July. He will conduct also “Don Carlos”, “Werther”, “Un ballo in Maschera” and concerts.

Ira Levin

Ira Levin has conducted over 1000 operatic performances and his repertoire encompasses 70 different titles. His symphonic repertoire includes most of the standard repertoire as well as many lesser-known works. He has worked with innumerable internationally renowned conductors, instrumentalists, singers and stage directors and is also an active concert pianist and composer/arranger. He conducted a double-bill of Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” and Busoni’s “Arlecchino” in the 100th anniversary season of the Theatro Sao Pedro in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in August 2017.

His hugely successful US operatic debut took place in April 2017 at Lincoln Center, conducting Respighi’s brilliant and rarely heard La campana sommersa in the first season of the newly re-organized New York City Opera. He received unanimously positive reviews from all of the leading papers and musical journals. He debut at the illustrious Théâtre de Geneve in November 2016 with Marschner’s Der Vampyr, was likewise received with great popular and critical acclaim. He also conducted several performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande.

Ira Levin was the Principal Guest Conductor of the legendary Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires from 2011-15, where he conducted 12 major opera productions, among which new productions of Aleko, Francesca da Rimini, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Un Ballo in Maschera, Idomeneo, Madama Butterfly, Werther, Don Carlos, including the American premieres of Enescu’s Oedipe and Glanert’s Caligula, and several symphonic programs. He previously served as Music Director and Artistic Director of the Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo (2002-2005) and of the National Theater of Brazil, in Brasilia (2007-2010), bringing both international acclaim. He introduced several important works by Mahler, Janacek, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Busoni, Enescu, Schoenberg, Schnittke, Corigliano and many others to Brazil. He held posts as assistant conductor at the Frankfurt Opera (1985-88), principal conductor of the Bremen Opera (1988-1996) and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf-Duisburg (1996-2002) and as the principal guest conductor of the Kassel Opera (1994-1998). He has performed with many orchestras and at opera houses throughout the world including the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, the Düsseldorfer Symphony, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Hannover State Orchestra of Lower Saxony, the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, the Badische Staatskapelle of Karlsruhe, the Bremen Philharmonic, the Dublin Opera, the Montpellier Opera, the Norske Opera in Oslo, the Norrlands Opera in Umea, Sweden, the Cape Town Opera, the National Portuguese Symphony Orchestra in Lisbon, the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and all of the major orchestras in Brazil.

Ira Levin gave his highly successful debut in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall in November 2013 with the Berlin Symphony, conducting his orchestration of Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica and Schumann’s Fourth Symphony as well as playing a Mozart piano concerto. His two CDs with the London Symphony of works by American composer Michael Colina on the Fleur deSon/Naxos label were received with glowing reviews and his 2014 recording of Colina’s Requiem, «Requinauts», with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus was released on the same label at the end of 2014, also to critical acclaim. His recording of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony with the Symphony Orchestra of Norrlands Opera, the first since 1952, will be followed by the release in 2017 of the world premiere recording of the 1892 edition of the Second Symphony with the same forces.

His 2010 orchestration of Busoni’s monumental Fantasia Contrappuntistica was included on the program of his extremely successful debut as conductor, pianist and arranger in Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall in November of 2013 with the Berlin Symphony. An orchestration of Liszt’s Fantasia and Fugue on the theme BACH followed in 2011. These works have been performed in Germany, Finland, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. His 2012 orchestration of Franck’s Piano Quintet had it’s successful world premiere with the Helsinki Philharmonic under the direction of Leif Segerstam in October, 2014. His 2014 orchestrations of five Rachmaninoff works were successfully performed by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Porto Alegre Symphony and the orchestra of the SODRE, Montevideo and his 2015 orchestration of Reger’s piano masterpiece, the Variations and Fugue on a theme by J.S. Bach, received it’s successful world premiere in Turku, Finland in February 2016, also under the direction of Leif Segerstam. Ira Levin conducted it and other works by Reger with the Brandenburg State Orchestra for a new multi-DVD documentary by «Fugue State Films» in honor of the 2016 centenary of Reger’s death, which was released in March 2017 and also performed it with the Malaga Philharmonic in October of 2016. All of these works have been published by «Edition Tilli» of Finland. His new orchestration of Respighi’s violin and piano sonata in b-minor was published in February 2017 by Tilli as «Concerto in b-minor».

«Edition Tilli» completed publishing in 2016 the large series of his transcriptions for piano solo of works by Bach, Gluck, Schubert, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Villa-Lobos and cadenzas to several Mozart concertos. Levin’s recordings of many his piano works can now be heard on You Tube, along with the scores.  An accomplished pianist, Ira Levin was the first-prize winner of the American National Chopin Competition in 1980. He studied for eight years with the legendary Jorge Bolet at the Curtis Institute, later becoming his assistant, while also studying conducting with Max Rudolf. He has performed throughout the United States, South America, and Europe and continues to appear in recital and concert, often leading concertos from the keyboard as well, including works by Mozart, Weber, Bach and even Brahms’s second concerto, which he conducted and played after a major soloist cancelled on short notice.