One of today's preeminent conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire, and developed enduring relationships with the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses through more than 30 years of conducting.
Mr. Conlon embarked on his inaugural season as Music Director of Los Angeles Opera in September 2006. He is also currently Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and continues to serve as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, America's oldest choral festival, since 1979. Mr. Conlon has served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002), where he was simultaneously Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991). He is continually engaged to guest-conduct the major orchestras and opera houses throughout North America and Europe.
Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974 at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Mr. Conlon has appeared with virtually every major North American and European orchestra. He has also appeared with many of the world's major opera companies, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Royal Opera at Covent Garden (London), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence). Associated for almost 30 years with the Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut in 1976, Mr. Conlon has conducted more than 250 performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech repertoire. Having held the longest tenure of any conductor since 1939 at the Paris Opera, Mr. Conlon concluded his nine-year directorship there in July 2004, after conducting 32 operas with a total of more than 357 performances. His leadership is associated with an increase in artistic standards, overall productivity and attendance, which, in an era of diminishing audiences, has increased exponentially in the past decade.
During the 2007-08 season at LA Opera, Mr. Conlon leads productions of Beethoven's Fidelio, Janácek's Jenufa, Verdi's Otello, and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. He also conducts the first operas of the "Recovered Voices" series, a multi-year project during which Mr. Conlon will bring the music of composers affected by the Holocaust to the LA Opera stage. The series begins this season with a double-bill of Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Viktor Ullmann's Der Krug, and will include operas by composers such as Schreker and Braunfels, among others, in future seasons. Since beginning his tenure at LA Opera, Mr. Conlon has sought to establish a Wagnerian tradition in LA, and this season's Tristan is one of seven Wagnerian works he will conduct there over the next four years, including the first ever performance in LA of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen beginning in 2008-09.
Also this season, Mr. Conlon begins a two-year collaboration with his alma mater, The Juilliard School, consisting of a special artist residency beginning in Fall 2007. Mr. Conlon will work with the school's young artists in its three divisions - dance, drama, music - in an educational project meant to promote growth and historical curiosity in students and audience members alike. The cross-genre project will consist of performances, symposia, master classes, and coaching. In addition to study and performance of the lesser-known repertoire of composers affected by the rise of Nazism and the events of WWII, of which he is an ardent champion, Mr. Conlon will moderate symposia and speak about the role of the artist in current times.
Mr. Conlon's guest-conducting engagements during the 2007-08 season include performances with The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra in the U.S. In Europe he conducts the Dresdner Staatskapelle, Vienna Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, National Philharmonic of Russia, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra National de France, Munich Philharmonic, Montpellier Symphony and the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale.
In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by the Holocaust, Mr. Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe. This includes the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek. In addition to "Recovered Voices" at LA Opera, as Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, each summer Mr. Conlon presents a different composer from this group with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has highlighted works of Viktor Ullman, Erwin Schulhoff, and Alexander Zemlinsky thus far. A production conceived by Mr. Conlon of Ullman's The Kaiser From Atlantis (written while interned in the concentration camp of Terezin) has traveled extensively since it's first showing in New York. Produced in cooperation with The Juilliard School, it has since been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Ravinia Festival, in cooperation with the New World Symphony, The Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
Mr. Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians and, in addition to his continual work with Juilliard ensembles and his newly launched residency there, has devoted his time to teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Tanglewood Music Center. He will become actively involved in the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as Ravinia's model community outreach and education programs, and plans to help lead and expand educational projects during his tenure at Los Angeles Opera. Mr. Conlon has been active with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1997, where he not only conducts the final round of the competition, but also initiated a program through which he leads master classes and coaches finalists. His work in several competitions was taped and aired in a special series on PBS, the most recent of which debuted in spring 2006.
Mr. Conlon has recorded extensively for the EMI, ERATO, Capriccio and SONY Classical labels. He made his first recording for Telarc of the world premiere of Franz Liszt's St. Stanislaus oratorio, released in January 2004. A champion of the works of Alexander Zemlinsky, he has made nine recordings of the composer's operas and orchestral works with the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic for EMI. Several of these recordings individually have earned prestigious international awards, and in October 2002, the series was awarded the 2002 ECHO Classic Award for "Editorial Achievement of the Year." Mr. Conlon has also inaugurated a new series of 20th century works with Capriccio, including a CD of works by Erwin Schulhoff with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and a CD/DVD of the works of Viktor Ullmann with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Award for Excellence). His other Capriccio recordings include the works of Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Dmitri Shostakovich with violinist Vladimir Spivakov and the Cologne Philharmonic. His most recent recording is a CD of works by Bohislav Martinu with the Bayerischer Rundfunk on Capriccio.
PBS aired a series of six shows hosted by Mr. Conlon entitled "Encore" during the spring of 2006, part of an ongoing series of documentaries on his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which have also included "Playing on the Edge" and "Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon." Among his other recent television appearances on PBS are, "Concerto," six half-hour shows hosted by Mr. Conlon, and "Cincinnati May Festival 2000."
Mr. Conlon made his professional debut in 1971 conducting Boris Godunov at the Spoleto Festival, and his New York debut the following year while still a student, leading a Juilliard production of La Bohème on the recommendation of Maria Callas. In 1999, Mr. Conlon received the Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer's music to international attention. In 2005, Mr. Conlon received one of five annual Opera News Awards given for the first time in recognition of distinguished contributions from leading figures in the world of opera. He has been honored by The New York Public Library as a "Library Lion," an annual award given to individuals in recognition of their contributions through their work, and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by The Juilliard School in May 2004. Mr. Conlon was named an Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2004 he was promoted to Commander-the highest honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture in France. In September 2002, James Conlon received France's highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac-the Légion d'Honneur.
