Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys a multi-faceted conducting career of unusual breadth and variety, from early music to cutting-edge contemporary scores, intimate chamber programs and grand opera.
In December 2011 he was announced Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of St Luke’s, beginning a four-year term with the ensemble which will include regular concerts at Carnegie Hall, New York. His 2011/12 season also features debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the NDR Sinfonieorchester; as well as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony and Mariinsky Orchestra and Theatre. In the US he returns to the San Francisco and Houston Symphony orchestras, and the Los Angeles Philhamonic. Further highlights include a production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride for the Canadian Opera Company, a debut appearance at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and a tour with the Freiburger Barockorchester in March 2012.
In December 2011, he was awarded the Medalla de Honor of the Rodriguez Acosta Foundation. The award, with previous winners including Manuel de Falla and Andrés Segovia Torres, will be presented in spring 2012. In February 2012, he was awarded with the the Golden Medal of the City of Granada, his hometown, to recognise his outstanding professional trajectory.
Future plans include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Ensemble intercontemporain, a debut at the Salzburger Festspiele (with Klangforum Wien) and concerts with the Lucerne Festival Academy 2012.
Last season, 2010/11, his operatic projects included Mahagonny with Teatro Real Madrid and La Fura dels Baus, and Nixon in China with Canadian Opera Company. For the latter he was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award by The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts for his “Outstanding Musical Direction.” In May 2011 he conducted acclaimed world premiere performances of Hosokawa’s Matsukaze at La Monnaie in association with Sasha Waltz & Guests and Vocalconsort Berlin. The production also travelled to Warsaw, Luxembourg and to the Staatsoper Berlin.
During 2010/11 also Pablo returned to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Philharmonic and NHK Symphony orchestras, as well as the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Pablo has appeared, too, with the Boston and Chicago Symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Netherlands Radio Kammerphilharmonie. In opera, Pablo has conducted productions including The Elixir of Love for English National Opera, Rigoletto for Welsh National Opera, the world premiere of Marc-Olivier Dupin´s ballet Les enfants du paradis for Opéra National de Paris, a new production of Offenbach´s La Périchole, as well as Le Nozze de Figaro, with Opéra National de Bordeaux.
A champion of contemporary music, Pablo has worked with Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall, Klangforum Wien and Collegium Novum Zürich. His performance of repertoire including Stockhausen’s Gruppen resulted in him winning the 2007 Lucerne Festival Conductors’ Competition. The award was voted unanimously by a jury including Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös.
Conducting his period-instrument chamber opera company, La Compañía Teatro del Príncipe in Aranjuez, Pablo has released world premiere recordings of Castel’s La Fontana del Placer and Boccherini’s La Clementina for Música Antigua Aranjuez Ediciones – while his recording with La Compañía of Giuseppe Bonno’s L’isola disabitata is due for release soon. A DVD of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France for Naïve was released in summer 2011. This year sees him embark on a significant recording collaboration with Harmonia Mundi.
