James Conlon Conducts Four Spanish Orchestras in the Four Symphonies of Schumann and Brahms as Part of World Music Day Festivities, June 18–21

MADRID, SPAIN (June 16, 2021) — From June 18 leading up to World Music Day (or Fiesta de la Música) on June 21, internationally renowned maestro James Conlon celebrates by conducting the complete Schumann and Brahms symphonies in collaboration with four different Spanish orchestras. Most of these performances are part of the sixth ¡SOLO MÚSICA! biennial, this year titled “Duelo Romántico,” at Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música. Given that Schumann and Brahms each composed four symphonies, the biennial treats each of the four programs as a ‘duel’ between their respective symphonies of the same number, as follows:

• Friday, June 18 at 8:00 p.m. CEST
  ORQUESTA NACIONAL DE ESPAÑA
  Schumann’s Symphony No. 1
  Brahms’s Symphony No. 1
  Broadcast via RTVE’s Radio Clásica
  (listen online at rtve.es/radio/radio-clasica/directo)
   
• Saturday, June 19 at 12:00 p.m. CEST
  ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE GALICIA
  Schumann’s Symphony No. 2
  Brahms’s Symphony No. 2
   
• Saturday, June 19 at 8:00 p.m. CEST
  ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN
  Schumann’s Symphony No. 3
  Brahms’s Symphony No. 3
   
• Sunday, June 20 at 12:00 p.m. CEST
  JOVEN ORQUESTA NACIONAL DE ESPAÑA
  Schumann’s Symphony No. 4
  Brahms’s Symphony No. 4
  Broadcast via RTVE’s Radio Clásica
  (listen online at rtve.es/radio/radio-clasica/directo)

Additional broadcasts, telecasts, and online streams of these performances to be announced.

The ¡SOLO MÚSICA! biennial, which launched in 2011, is presented by Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical (CNDM) and carries a different theme every two years.

On World Music Day itself, Monday, June 21, at 10:30 p.m. CEST, Mr. Conlon reprises his program with the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España featuring Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. This performance is part of the Festival de Granada and takes place at the Palace of Charles V.

Regarding these festivities, Mr. Conlon said:

Spain has shown remarkable resilience during the entire pandemic and has been able to keep the doors of its major concert and opera venues open for a great deal of the past year. This weekend marks an important celebration of that accomplishment, and I am thrilled to be able to observe it with so many musicians and so much of the public.

After celebrating World Music Day in Spain, Mr. Conlon returns to the United States for performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Festival Napa, and the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival, where he was Music Director from 2005 to ’15. Following his summer engagements, he shifts his focus to the opening of the 2021–22 season at the Los Angeles Opera, where he is Music Director. He conducts the first two productions of the season, Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Wagner's Tannhäuser, both of which return to the LA Opera repertory after long absences. 

About James Conlon

James Conlon, one of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous essays and commentaries, frequent television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Mr. Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized interpreters.

As LA Opera Music Director (since 2006), Mr. Conlon has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history—to date, nearly 400 performances of more than 50 different operas by over 20 composers—and his recordings of LA Opera productions have received four Grammy® Awards. He has also become recognized for his popular pre-performance talks at LA Opera. Recent highlights with the company include a live-streamed, socially distanced staging of The Anonymous Lover by 18th-century Black composer Joseph Bologne and a production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex that reopened the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, thus making LA Opera the first major opera company to perform live in its own theater since the coronavirus outbreak.

In an effort to call attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this repertoire worldwide. His efforts led to the creation of The OREL Foundation, an invaluable resource for those engaging with this subject matter, and the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School. Honors for his work in this area include the Roger E. Joseph Prize from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League.

Mr. Conlon holds four honorary doctorates and has received numerous other awards, including France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, which he personally accepted from then-President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac.

For more information, visit JamesConlon.com.

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