Hernández-Silva at the Sacred Music Festival in Bogotá

Hernández-Silva at the Sacred Music Festival in Bogotá

Manuel Hernández-Silva conducts the soprano Nadège Meden and the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia with Symphony No. 3, Op. 36, Symphony of Lamentations, by Henryk Górecki, within the framework of the XI International Festival of Sacred Music of Bogotá, the next September 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Fabio Lozano Auditorium. This concert marks the beginning of the symphonic season of maestro Hernández-Silva that will take him to new debuts with orchestras such as the Cyprus National Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Arctic Philharmonic, Orchestra National du Pays de la Loire, Galicia Symphony or Prague Philharmonia; and returns to the Valencia Orchestra, the Colombian National Symphony, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic or the Český Krumlov Festival, in the Czech Republic, in addition to having the opportunity to resume educational projects so dear to him as with the Musikene Orchestra and the Young Galician Symphony Orchestra.

Hernández-Silva has been principal conductor of the Córdoba Orchestra, main guest conductor of the Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Caracas, musical director of the Andalusian Youth Orchestra and principal and artistic director of the Malaga Philharmonic and the Navarra Symphony. He has conducted orchestras such as the Wienner Symphoniker, WDR Rundfunkorchester, Rheinische Philharmonie, Orchester National Bordeaux-Aquitaine, São Paulo State Orchestra, Wuppertal Symphony, Israel, Prague Radio, Janacek Philharmonic, Nord Czech Philharmonic, Olomouc Philharmonic, National of Mexico, Chile or Puerto Rico, Philharmonics of Seoul or Buenos Aires, among many others.

Hernández-Silva at the Sacred Music Festival in Bogotá

In Spain, Hernández-Silva has conducted practically all professional orchestras and at the most important festivals such as the Fortnight of Music, Granada and Úbeda Festivals, as well as at the Cemski-Krumlov Festival in the Czech Republic. As an opera director, he has received great criticism for his work on titles such as Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Cosí fan tutte or Don Giovanni, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Puccini’s La Boheme, Gianni Schicchi, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, or more recently Manon Lescaut. Hernández-Silva graduated from the Superior Conservatory of Vienna with honors in the chair of professors Reinhard Schwarz and Georg Mark. In the year of his diploma, he won the Forum Jünger Künstler conducting competition organized by the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, conducting this formation at the Konzerthaus in the Austrian capital.


 

José Luis Gómez renews in Tucson until 2027

José Luis Gómez renews in Tucson until 2027

Spanish conductor José Luis Gómez has just renewed his contract with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra until the end of the 2026/27 season. Gómez was appointed musical director in Tucson in 2016 and at this time had a contract in force until 2024, so he still had two years of tenure left, which have been extended another three. José Luis Gómez began his musical career as a violinist, but came to international attention in 2010 after winning the First Prize of the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt by unanimity of the jury. His performance in the competition earned him immediate appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position created especially for him by Paavo Järvi and the orchestra immediately after the competition’s conclusion. José Luis Gómez was also Principal Conductor of the 1813 Teatro Sociale di Como Orchestra between 2012 and 2015.

Since José Luis Gómez took over in Tucson, there has been a significant increase in the number of subscribers and sponsors. Gómez has worked hard to introduce new outreach activities while continuing to support and develop the orchestra’s existing educational projects. He is also a champion of many lesser-known South American composers, whose works he programs together with other classical authors. Similarly, he has been responsible for commissioning new compositions, such as Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño for trumpet, whose US premiere took place in 2019 with Pacho Flores.

José Luis Gómez renews in Tucson until 2027

On the American continent, José Luis Gómez maintains a close relationship with the Edmonton Symphony and has worked with orchestras such as the Houston Symphony, the Ottawa National Arts Center Orchestra, the Vancouver, Colorado, Grand Rapids, Winnipeg and Alabama Symphonies, Chamber Orchestra Antonio, Rochester, Louisiana, Pasadena, and Elgin Philharmonics, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the International Youth Philharmonic. In the south he has worked with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá and the National Orchestra of Peru. He is intensely active in Europe, where he has conducted orchestras such as the RTVE Symphony, Weimar Staatskapelle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Karlsruhe Staatstheater Orchester, Basel Sinfonietta, Orquestra Sinfônica do Porto, Castilla y Leon Symphony, Milan Pomeriggi Musicali, Warsaw Symphony, SWR Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Stuttgart, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra or the Malaga Philharmonic. In 2019 he made a successful debut at the Berlin Komische Oper with Gabriela Montero as soloist. He recently conducted a tour of Belgium with the Flanders Symphony and Johannes Moser as soloist. In the Asia-Pacific area he has led the Macau Orchestra with Nemanja Radulovic, New Zealand Symphony, Australian National Academy of Music, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and Daegu Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Other notable performances by José Luis Gómez include his debuts with the Moscow State Conservatory, the widely televised New Year’s Eve concert in Sofia and with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at their New Year’s concerts and some upcoming engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra. from Washington DC (Program with Yo Yo Ma and Paquito de Rivera), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (With Stephen Hough, piano), or the Pacific, Colorado and Phoenix Symphonies. In the operatic arena, highlights include La Bohème at the Frankfurt Opera and a new production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Stuttgart Opera, La Forza del Destino in Tokyo with the New National Theatre, Don Carlo and Norma at The State Opera in Tbilisi, Georgia, La Traviata in concert version with the Sacramento Philharmonic, or Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at the Teatro Sociale di Como, where he also conducted a spectacular production of Cavalleria Rusticana. He has recorded Bela Fleck’s Concerto No. 2 for banjo and orchestra, Juno Concerto, with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conducted the Hamburg Symphony and the talented young clarinettist Vladimir Soltan in the release of an album for MGD that collects the concertos for Nielson, Françaix and Debussy clarinet.


 

Pacho Flores, artist-in-residence in Galicia and Liverpool

Pacho Flores, artist-in-residence in Galicia and Liverpool

Pacho Flores faces the 2022/23 season as resident artist of two important European orchestras: the Galicia Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. After a summer in which he was also resident artist at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s La Virée Classique festival, and during the 22/23 academic year Pacho Flores will combine his status as resident artist in the Atlantic ports of A Coruña and Liverpool, with the OSG and the RLPO, orchestras participating in the shared commission for Gabriela Ortiz’s new trumpet concerto, Altar de Bronce, together with the New World Symphony, which has scheduled the premiere for the 2023/24 season, and another orchestra yet to be determined.

With the Galician orchestra it will be present with three programs, two symphonic, both under the baton of Manuel Hernández-Silva, one of which has an important educational aspect as it will be performed with the Youth Orchestra of the Galician Symphony, and one of chamber music along with guitarist Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, with whom he recorded the album ENTROPÍA for Deutsche Grammophon, in collaboration with the A Coruña Philharmonic Society. The program with the young orchestra includes the Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, and Albares, Concerto for flugelhorn by Pacho Flores himself; the second program includes Paquito D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano together with the world premiere of Altar de Bronce. All these concerts related to Pacho’s residency in Galicia will take place in April 2023. The British orchestra has also proposed three activities, an extraordinary Christmas program, and two subscription programs directed by its head Domingo Hindoyan, the first, in May, with two classics from the French repertoire for trumpet such as the Concerto by Tomasi and the Concertino for trumpet, piano and strings by Jolivet; and a season finale in July that includes Salseando by Roberto Sierra and the UK premiere of Altar de Bronce. These four works will be recorded for a new album. Therefore, December 2022, April, May and July 2023 will be the periods of this double residency.

Pacho Flores, artist-in-residence in Galicia and Liverpool

Along with these two residencies, other outstanding activities of a season that begins with the presentation of ESTIRPE, their fifth album for Deutsche Grammophon, are the premieres in the US and Norway of Historias de Flores y Tangos, with the orchestras of Walla y Walla and Arctic Philharmonic respectively, the latter under the direction of Hernández-Silva, as well as concerts in Singapore, Tucson, Buffalo, Belgrade, Quebec, etc. With the closure of the premiere cycle of the Daniel Freiberg concert throughout the 2022/23 season, there are now five new concertos resulting from the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts that Pacho has promoted: Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’ Rivera, Efraín Oscher, Roberto Sierra and the aforementioned Freiberg, and throughout 2023/24 the remaining two, by Christian Lindberg and Gabriela Ortiz, will be also completed.


 

Pacho Flores releases ESTIRPE, new album for Deutsche Grammophon

Pacho Flores releases ESTIRPE, new album for Deutsche Grammophon

Pacho Flores launches ESTIRPE, his new record for Deutsche Grammophon label and the fifth on the yellow label, available from July, 29th on. Taking advantage of its presence in the summer season of the Minería Symphony Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto for the American premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, he presents this recording, which was made with the same protagonists in September 2019 at the Churubusco studios in the Mexican capital. This album features two outstanding guest artists, the Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist, Paquito D’Rivera, and the Argentine pianist, arranger, and composer, Daniel Freiberg, and already includes some of the concerts resulting from the project of shared commissions for new concerts for trumpet to outstanding composers that Pacho and his agency ACM Concerts have been managing in recent years and that has already added six new concerts to the repertoire and with a seventh in the process of composition.

The album opens with the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, the first concerto of the project, premiered in September 2018 by the National Symphony of Mexico under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto. Along with the OSNM, the other orchestras participating in the commission were the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it with its head José Luis Gómez; the Orchestra of the Performing Arts Center of Hyogo, Japan, with maestro Michiyoshi Inoue, and the Oviedo Filarmonía, with Lucas Macías. Next we find Crónicas Latinoamericanas, by Daniel Freiberg, a commission from the WDR Sinfonieorchester of Cologne, originally conceived for clarinet, which Freiberg adapted for trumpet as soon as he saw Pacho on stage.

Pacho Flores releases ESTIRPE, new album for Deutsche Grammophon

The third concert on the album is the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, also resulting from the project of shared commissions. In this case, it was the Minería Symphony Orchestra itself, again under the direction of Prieto, who starred in the Mexican premiere and participated in the commission together with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, which premiered it with its current Music Director, Domingo Hindoyan, the Orchestra of Valencia, with Hernández-Silva, and the San Diego Symphony, with its head Rafael Payare. The last of the four concerts included on the album is Mestizo, by Efraín Oscher, which has a special meaning: Commissioned by the Children and Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela and premiered in Caracas in 2010 with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra and the direction of Domingo Hindoyan, it is the true antecedent of everything that came later with this project of shared commissions, as it was the very first concert composed for various instruments of the trumpet family, which later became a constant and a distinctive feature of Pacho Flores’s performances. The album ends with Morocota, a Venezuelan waltz by Pacho Flores originally composed for trumpet and guitar and included on ENTROPÍA, his second album for Deutsche Grammophon, with guitarist and cuatrista Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, and later also orchestrated by Pacho himself.

Pacho Flores releases ESTIRPE, new album for Deutsche Grammophon

After so an exciting summer that took him to Mexico with Alondra de la Parra’s Impossible Orchestra, to the Brass Festival Stuttgart, the Italian Brass Week, to Montreal as resident artist of La Virée Classique, where he played and conducted his own and other repertoire in three concerts with different formations; back to Mexico to Freiberg’s and to present ESTIRPE, Pacho Flores kicks off a sensational season with the Singapore Symphony with concerts by Haydn and Arturo Márquez. A 2022/23 season that brings important debuts for Pacho with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, with Carlos Miguel Prieto; Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Gustavo Dudamel; Galicia Symphony, with Manuel Hernández-Silva; National Symphony of Colombia with Christian Vásquez; Quebec Symphony, with Anu Talli; Buffalo Philharmonic, with JoAnn Falletta, National of Cyprus, with Hernández-Silva; Belgrade Philharmonic, with Felix Mildenberger; as well as his return to the San Diego Symphony, with Rafael Payare; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, with Domingo Hindoyan; or Tucson Symphony and Arctic Philharmonic, in both again with Hernández-Silva. In Liverpool and Galicia Flores will be artist-in-residence. He also continues with his project of commissions and premieres of new trumpet concertos, with the completion of the series of premieres by Daniel Freiberg with Arctic and with the Walla Walla Symphony; and the beginning of a new cycle with Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, which will premiere the orchestras of Galicia and Liverpool and whose premieres will continue in the 2023/24 season. In Liverpool he will also record a new album that will include, among others, the concerts Salseando, by Roberto Sierra, and the aforementioned Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz. He will also return to the Bogotá Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Chile, and will maintain his presence in metal forums and meetings all over the world, as well as his didactic and pedagogical activities, among which his participation stands out, within their respective residences, with the Youth Orchestra of the Galician Symphony, and with the In Harmony program of the Liverpool Philharmonic.


 

Marina Heredia at the Lausitz Festival in Germany

Marina Heredia at the Lausitz Festival in Germany

After her concert at the Palacio de Carlos V within the Granada Festival with the premiere of the show ArteSonao, and her debut at the Martha Argerich Festival at the Laieszhalle in Hamburg, Marina Heredia performs at the Lausitz Festival in Görlitz, east of Germany, on August 31, with a flamenco recital, along with artists such as Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Il Giardino Armonico, John Zorn, Barbara Hannigan, etc.

Tireless creator, great lady of today’s cante, Marina is one of the best things that has happened to flamenco in the last century and is one of the most demanded singers internationally. Shortly after this presentation at the Lausitz Festival, Marina, who made her debut this spring at the Berlin Philharmonie with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, returns to the Seville Biennale and opens the season of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra with her new Music and artistic Director Perry So with El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla.

Marina Heredia at the Lausitz Festival in Germany

In November Marina will visit the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin as a special guest of the mandolinist Avi Avital, and throughout the 2022/23 season she will be resident artist of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra also in Germany, with two performances with orchestra and two flamenco shows. During this residency she will sing El Amor Brujo de Falla again, together with the orchestra’s head Axel Kober, and will star in the world premiere of a new work commissioned by the orchestra from José Quevedo ‘el Bolita’ and Joan Albert Amargós under the direction of Josep Pons.