Biography
Pablo Heras-Casado
Although still only 32 years old, Spanish-born Pablo Heras-Casado already enjoys a multi-faceted conducting career of unusual breadth and variety. The range of his repertoire is remarkable, from historically informed early music to the cutting edge of contemporary scores, and he maintains a globetrotting schedule of operatic and orchestral engagements.
Following summer music festival debuts at Blossom with the Cleveland Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Mostly Mozart at New York’s Lincoln Center, Heras-Casado appears for the first time in the 2010/2011 season with the San Francisco, Seattle and Indianapolis Symphonies, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Staatsoper Berlin. He has re-engagements with the Los Angeles and BBC Philharmonics and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and begins significant conducting relationships with Teatro Real Madrid (Mahagonny), Canadian Opera Company (Nixon in China), and La Monnaie in Brussels, where he will lead the world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Matsukaze, in collaboration with German choreographer Sasha Waltz. Debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, NDR Symphony Orchestra and Dresden’s Semperoper are scheduled for 2011/12.
This past season marked Heras-Casado’s first appearances with English National Opera (The Elixir of Love) and Welsh National Opera (Rigoletto). He made orchestral debuts with Staatskapelle Dresden, BBC Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and Orquesta Nacional de España. Other recent guest conducting projects have included the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and L’Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine. For upcoming release on the naïve label, he recorded a DVD of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, an ensemble with whom he now has multiple re-invitations.
Heras-Casado made his U.S. debut in June 2008 at age 30 leading a concert of Bach, Adès and Carter with Ensemble ACJW at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and his UK debut in August 2008 with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. In autumn 2008 for his entrée at the Paris Opera, he conducted the world premiere of Marc-Olivier Dupin´s ballet Les enfants du paradis. Also that season, he led a new production of Offenbach´s La Périchole with Opéra National de Bordeaux, where he will return for projects in 2011/12 and beyond. Following his first guest conducting appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in December 2008, he was re-engaged three times within two years.
Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös headed the jury that unanimously voted Heras-Casado winner of the 2007 Lucerne Festival Conductors’ Competition, incorporating an acclaimed performance of Gruppen. They have both been strongly supportive mentors in recent years. He has worked with the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt (International Composers Seminar with Hanspeter Kyburz), Klangforum Wien and Collegium Novum Zürich. Future plans include a project with Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Since his teenage years Heras-Casado has earned a reputation for conducting performances of neglected 17th- and 18th-century repertoire. With the original instrument-based Compañía Teatro del Príncipe in Aranjuez, which he co-founded, he released the world premiere recordings of Castel’s zarzuela La Fontana del Placer and Boccherini’s only zarzuela, La Clementina, for Harmonia Mundi in 2008 and 2010 respectively. With a background including choral conducting studies with Harry Christophers and master classes with Christopher Hogwood, he has worked with and founded chamber choirs including Capella Exaudi and La Cantoría, with the latter winning the ‘Gran Premio Nacional de Canto Coral’ in 2004.
Born in Granada in 1977, the young Spaniard has conducted many of his country’s most important orchestras. He held the post of Principal Conductor of the Girona City Orchestra from 2005 to 2008, has recorded and premiered Spanish ballet music in theaters throughout Andalucia, and was Musical Director of Llanto (music by Maurice Ohana, lyrics by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca).
Heras-Casado complemented his musical education with the study of Art History at the University of Granada. In 2000 he was awarded second prize at the National Competition for Young Conductors with the Principado de Asturias Symphony Orchestra, and in 2002 received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Foundation to attend master classes in choral conducting as part of the Festival Junger Künstler in Bayreuth. He was also one of only three conductors selected to participate in a project led by Daniel Barenboim with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2004.
Heras-Casado made the world premiere recording of Eleanor Alberga’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. More recently he has recorded Spanish contemporary music with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Spanish choral music with the Europa Chor Akademie, and, with La Compañía in Aranjuez, the first recording of L’Isola Disabitata by 18th-century Italian Giuseppe Bonno.
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