Jesús López Cobos

Jesús López Cobos was born in Toro -Zamora- and, after graduating with a degree in Philosophy from the Complutense University of Madrid and a degree in Composition from the Conservatory of Madrid, he studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music. He received awards at the Besançon and Copenhagen -Nikolai Malko- Competitions, and made his debut as a symphonic conductor in Prague and as an opera conductor in Venice. In 1971, he was invited by the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, where he stayed until 1990. In 1981, he was appointed general music director of this opera theatre and travelled with it to Washington and Japan, where they offered, for the first time in this country, Richard Wagner's complete tetralogy. In 1975, he made his debut in Los Angeles and London, with these cities' philharmonic orchestras. For six years, he was the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and toured Japan and Spain with it. He has regularly conducted all the major European and American orchestras, in addition to participating in the most prestigious international festivals, such as Edinburgh, Salzburg, Berlin, Prague, Lucerne, Montreux, Tanglewood, Ravinia and the Hollywood Bowl.

He has served as artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (1990-2000) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1986-2001), which recently named him Music Director Emeritus. He has also been artistic director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes for three seasons and chief conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra (1984-1988). J. López Cobos was the first Spanish conductor to take the baton at La Scala in Milan, the Covent Garden in Londres, the Opéra de Paris and the Metropolitan in Nueva York. He once again conducts opera works regularly and has collaborated, amongst others, in five productions of the Opéra de La Bastille in Paris, conducted Manon Lescaut at the Metropolitan in New York, and returned to Chicago and the Orange Festival. He has also participated in productions at the Royal Theatre in Madrid, where he was appointed music director in September 2003. He is also chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Madrid, with which he offers his own concert cycles.

His extensive recordings include a significant number of albums for Philips, Decca, Virgin, Teldec, Telarc, Denon, Claves, Cascavelle, etc. With his Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded, exclusively for Telarc, works by M. de Falla, M. Ravel, G. Bizet, C. Franck, G. Mahler, O. Respighi, H. Villa-Lobos and D. Shostakovich, and his latest recording earned him a ‘Grammy 2003' nomination. He has also been in charge of an A. Bruckner symphony cycle. With the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, he has recorded a J. Haydn symphony cycle for Denon and a series of operas by G. Rossini for the label Teldec; of these, Il barbiere di Siviglia and L'italiana in Algeri have already been published.

J. López Cobos conducted the closing concert for the Royal Theatre as a concert hall and the opening concerts of the National Music Auditorium in 1988. He was the first conductor to receive the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts and is an honorary member of the Berlin Opera Theatre. The German Government granted him the highest civilian decoration, the Merit Cross First Class of the Federal Republic of Germany, for his contribution to this country's culture. The University of Cincinnati named him Doctor Honoris Causa for the Arts. He has been decorated by the Spanish Government with the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts. The French Government has granted him the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters and he has also received the CEOE Foundation Award.