Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Pedro Halffter (Spain), Gaik Kazazyan (violin)

Pedro Halffter Caro, born in Madrid in 1971, is Artistic Director of Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza, and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of both the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria.

Between 2001 and 2004 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, as well as holding the position of Principal Conductor of the Bayreuth Festival Youth Orchestra in 2002 and 2003. 

He has conducted some of the world’s leading ensembles, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, New Japan Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, as well as most of the orchestras in Spain, at such major international venues as the Vienna Musikverein, the Konzerthaus Berlin, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Tokyo’s Opera City Concert Hall and the Shanghai Concert Hall.

Halffter studied at the prestigious Schule Schloss Salem in Germany, and attended conducting classes with such eminent teachers as Karl Oesterreicher, Bruno Weil, Ilya Musin and Ferdinand Leitner, continuing his studies at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik (conducting) and in New York (composition).

Recent achievements include highly successful tours of Japan and China with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and a 2009 tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, with whom he also took part in the cultural events organised in conjunction with the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Considered one of the best conductors of the symphonic repertoire of his generation, he has also established a successful career in the opera house, conducting more than thirty works, including, in recent years, La fanciulla del West, Tristan und Isolde, Carmen and Normawith the Dresden Philharmonic, and the Spanish premieres of Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang, Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg and Eine Florentinische Tragödie, Busoni’s Doktor Faust and Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau at the Teatro de la Maestranza, and Krenek’s Orpheus und Euridyke at the Teatro Real.

He has also recently conducted Tannhäuser, in a new production by Katharina Wagner, and made his debut at the Staatsoper in Berlin with Strauss’s Salome.

Future opera projects include both Busoni’s and Puccini’s Turandot in Seville, and Der Ferne Klang and Salome at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Pedro Halffter has composed more then twenty works. These have been premiered by, among others, the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain, at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and the Dortmund Philharmonie.

Particularly noteworthy among his recordings are that of Cristóbal Halffter’s Don Quijote for Glossa, albums devoted to Falla and Korngold for Warner Music, and to Schoenberg, Schreker and Michael Daugherty for Warner Classics & Jazz (with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal).