CLOSING CONCERT

Internationally recognized as one of the leading directors of the contemporary scene, James Conlon, in his career, has performed in almost all of North America and every European capital of music. He is Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera, of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and of the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest choral music festival in the United States. He was Principal Conductor of the Opera National de Paris (1995-2004) for longer than any other director, General Music Director of the City of Cologne in Germany (1989-2002), also holding the positions of Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera. He was also Music Director for the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991). Since his debut in 1976, he has directed more than 250 performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Renowned for his interpretations of the Wagner repertoire, since the beginning of his mandate in 2006 at the Los Angeles Opera, he has tried to establish a Wagnerian tradition in Los Angeles. In five years he has directed seven of Wagner’s works, including the Ring Cycle. For a month, throughout the city, the Ring Festival was held, in collaboration with 125 Arts institutions. In June 2010 he conducted three cycles of the Ring at the Los Angeles Opera. This series will continue on the occasion of the bicentennial of Wagner in 2013 and in the future as well. Conlon is currently carrying out a three-year tribute to Benjamin Britten, culminating in November 2013 on the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth with a concert of Britten’s War Requiem and a Britten Festival similar to that of Wagner. A long time devotee of Britten’s music, he will direct some of his works in the U.S. and Europe in the coming seasons, including The Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Death in Venice and The Rape of Lucretia at the Los Angeles Opera, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome. The tribute includes symphonic and choral works with the NDR Sinfonie Orchester in Hamburg, the Orchestre National de France in Paris, with the Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Filarmonica della Scala and the Symphonic Montreal. With the aim of spreading the works of composers suppressed by the Nazi regime, he has devoted himself to the programming of their music in North America and Europe: at the Ravinia Festival with the series Breaking the Silence and the Los Angeles Opera with Recovered Voices. For his efforts in bringing the music of these composers to international attention, he received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the ZemliskyPrize. He is also the founder and Artistic Advisor of the Orel Foundation, an organization dedicated to highlighting and representing the works of these authors. He has recorded for the major record companies and received numerous awards. He has appeared in several television series and at the Metropolitan Opera in performances presented on DVD. More recently he has presented the titles of Der Zweg by Zemlisky, Der zerbrochene Krug by Ullmann and Die Vögel by Braunfels, recorded on DVD. He has received two Grammy Awards (Best Classical Recording and Best Opera Album) for The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill, the Los Angeles Opera production, released on DVD. He was appointed Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1996 and promoted to Comandante in 2004. In 2002 he received France’s highest award the Legion d’Onore, from the French President, Jacques Chirac. For the Festival of 2Worlds, in 2009 he conducted Gianni Schicchi directed by Woody Allen, in 2011 the final concert in Piazza Duomo and, in 2012, he conducted a concert at Teatro Caio Melisso Spazio Carla Fendi with music by Franz Schreker, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.