Sunday 20
Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco
Alondra de la Parra, artistic director
Alexander Da Costa, violin

Place: Teatro Degollado
Time: 12:45 hr.

In Spanish

Programme:

Spanish Simphony for violín and orchestra Op. 21 by Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)

I- Allegro non troppo
[8 min]

II- Scherzando. Allegro molto
[4 min]

III- Intermezzo. Allegretto non troppo
[6 min]

IV-Andante
[7 min]

V-Rondo. Allegro
[8 min]

Intermission

Iberia by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

I- Par les rues et par les Chemis
[8 min]

II- Les Parfums de la nuit
[9 min]

III- Le matin d´un jour de fete
[5 min]

Alondra de la Parra, Artistic director

Conductor Alondra de la Parra has gained widespread attention for her spellbinding and vibrant performances, making her one of the most compelling conductors of her generation. She holds the distinction of being the first Mexican woman to conduct in New York City, and is an official Cultural Ambassador for Mexican Tourism. She has been heralded by Plácido Domingo as "an extraordinary conductor."

"De la Parra's conducting style must be seen to be believed," raved the San Antonio News Express. "Her electric, precise and energetic fluidity generated arches of breathtaking, glowing expression. The driving Beethoven rhythms pulled the audience to its feet at the end. If people still wore hats, they would have been tossed toward the theater's night-sky ceiling."

Born in New York City in 1980, De la Parra moved to Mexico with her parents at age two. She began playing the piano at age seven and the cello at 13, and it was that year that she decided she wanted to be a conductor. At 15, she went to boarding school in England to study music and achieved her A-levels there. After returning to Mexico, she studied composition at Centro De Investigación y Estudios Musicales (Center of Music Studies, CIEM) in Mexico City before moving to New York City at age 19, and attending the Manhattan School of Music where she studied piano with Jeffrey Cohen and conducting with Kenneth Kiesler.

Alondra de la Parra founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) in 2004, when she was 23. Her mission was to create an orchestra that would serve as a platform to showcase young performers and composers from the Americas, giving music from the Americas an unquestioned place in the standard orchestral repertoire. In September 2010, De la Parra and POA performed during Mexico´s national celebration of the country´s Bicentennial at the Columna a la Independencia (El Ángel). The celebration was attended by hundreds of thousands and broadcast internationally to an estimated 200 million households around the world.

De la Parra´s debut recording, Mi Alma Mexicana ("My Mexican Soul") with POA was released by Sony Classical in August 2010. The 2-CD set celebrates the 2010 Mexican Bicentennial with 200 years of Mexican orchestral music, some of it never before commercially available. The disc was among the top 10 on the US Billboard Classical Chart when it was released, and in Mexico earned "Disco de Platino" (Platinum Record) status in less than two months – a first for a classical recording in Mexico in more than a decade.

Over just the past five years De la Parra has been featured on NBC´s Today Show, in Crain´s New York Business as one of their "40 under 40 New York´s Rising Stars," singled out in The Daily Beast as one of the "Young Rockstars of the Conducting World," graced the cover of Caras magazine, been the subject of a major feature in The New York Times, recognized by Poder magazine as one of their "Top 20 under 40," and named as one of six "Young Artists on the Rise" in Symphony magazine.

Frequently in demand as a guest conductor, Alondra de la Parra has led the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, Phoenix, Columbus, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Miami´s New World Symphony, Canada´s Edmonton Symphony, Germany´s Kammerakademie Potsdam and Moritzburg Festival Orchestra, Denmark´s Tivoli Symphony, the Russian National Orchestra, Brazil´s Sao Paulo Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico, Mexico´s Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Venezuela´s Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Uruguay´s Montevideo Philharmonic, the Singapore Sun Festival Orchestra where she collaborated with actor Geoffrey Rush, and the Washington National Opera in a gala concert with Plácido Domingo. In addition, since 2005 she has been Music Director of the Music Festival of the Americas in Stowe, Vermont.

Alondra de la Parra makes her home in New York City and holds a B.A. in piano performance and an M.M. in conducting from the Manhattan School of Music. Alondra de la Parra is represented worldwide by Tanja Dorn at IMG Artists.

Alexander Da Costa, violin

ALEXANDRE DA COSTA was born in Montréal, Québec, Canada in 1979. He showed an uncommon interest for both the violin and piano at a very early age. By the age of nine, he had the astonishing ability to perform his first concerts with stunning virtuosity on both instruments, which brought him recognition as a musical prodigy. His chosen professional career as a violinist began very early and he was soon performing regularly as soloist with orchestra as well as in recital.

At age 18, he obtained a Master’s Degree in violin and a First Prize from the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec. Concurrently, he also obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Interpretation from the University of Montréal. From 1998 to 2001, he studied at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid with his mentor Zakhar Bron, teacher of violinists such as Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin. In 2002, he won the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award from the Canada Council for the Arts given for an exceptionally gifted Canadian Artist under 30 years old. In 2003, he was awarded the “1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius” from the Canada Council f or the Arts - Musical Instrument Bank. In 2010, he received the prestigious Virginia-Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts, given by the Government of Canada to the Canadian musician that has distinguished himself in Canada and abroad.

Winner of many national and international first prizes, Alexandre Da Costa has given over a thousand concerts and recitals throughout North America, Mexico, Europe, United Kingdom and Asia. He has performed in major halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, New York's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Madrid’s National Auditorium, Beijing’s Poly Theater, and played with prestigious orchestras such as the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Spain’s National TV & Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He has worked with conductors such as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Leonard Slatkin, Matthias Bamert, Günter Herbig, Pedro Halffter, Adrian Leaper, Lior Shambadal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Carlos Miguel Prieto, to name a few. His live performance broadcasts have aired on BBC, WestDeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), Radio-Classical International, Radio-Canada/CBC, American NPR, Radio Nacional de España (RNE), Austria State Radio (ORF), and TV Asahi Japan.

In addition to his concert schedule, Alexandre Da Costa teaches violin at the Gatineau Music Conservatory (Ottawa, Canada), and regularly gives masterclasses at various universities and conservatories around the world. He was also named Musical Development Director of the Canimex Foundation, an organization gathering an impressive collection of fine instruments for the benefit of talented artists. Alexandre Da Costa now plays the 1727 "Di Barbaro" Stradivarius and a Sartory bow, loaned by Canimex.

”It is with lots of enthusiasm that I recommend a great artist that I appreciate and strongly support, violinist Alexandre Da Costa”

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos
Musical America Artist of the Year 2010

“31 years-old violinist Alexandre Da Costa plays with so much sensuality and shows all his qualities: Irreproachable technique, sensitivity and temperament. “

Neue Zürcher Zeitung
November 19th 2010 (Zürich, Switzerland)

Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco (Jalisco Filarmonic Orchestra)

In 1915, under the initiative of Maestro José Rolón, a group of musicians from Jalisco started offering symphonic and camera concert music to Guadalajara audiences, thus establishing the starting point for what in the future would be the Guadalajara Symphonic Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara). The orchestra was managed by the Concert Society (Sociedad de Conciertos) between 1915-1924, which had a director’s board, was sponsored by private institutions and received the State Government subsidy, interrupted in 1923 and this caused the disappearance of the organisation. Nevertheless, the musicians continued working to prevent the Orchestra from being completely obliterated, and obtained economical support from Governor José Guadalupe Zuno. It must be mentioned that Don Pedro González Peña was completely devoted to the Orchestra up to 1939.

In February 1942, while Guadalajara was celebrating its 4th Centennial, Maestro Leslie Hodge was on holiday there, and when he heard classical music played by some musicians, he approached them, willing to get acquainted encouraging them to constitute a formal orchestra. He was invited to organize it and conduct it, but at that moment he already had other commitments, promising to return after the end of World War II, and in view of this offering, the Friends of Music Association (Asociación de Amigos de la Música) requested from the Governor, Marcelino García Barragán to guarantee the survival of the orchestra until Mr. Hodge returned, and thus he became the first conductor of the Guadalajara Symphonic Orchestra. This sponsorship was sustained until 1950, year on which an association was constituted, Conciertos Guadalajara, A.C. (Guadalajara Concerts, A.C.), which sponsored the Guadalajara Symphonic Orchestra with state, municipal and private institutions funding.

The Guadalajara Symphonic Orchestra became part of the Arts Department in the State of Jalisco in 19971, which since then, has taken care of its artistic level and economic concerns.

Directors working with the orchestra have recognized it as adaptable and versatile, averaging 60 yearly appearances among concerts, opera and ballet. It has been conducted by famous musicians, such as Leslie Hodge, Abel Eisenberg, Helmut Goldman, Eduardo Mata, Kenneth Klein, Hugo Jan Huss, Francisco Orozco, Manuel de Elías, José Guadalupe Flores, Guillermo Salvador and Luis Herrera de la Fuente. Some of the soloists have been Paul Badura-Skoda, Claudio Arrau, Jörg Demus, Henryk Szering, Plácido Domingo; Alfred Brendel, Bernard Flavigny, Jean Pierre Rampal, and Narciso Yepez, among others.

The Guadalajara Symphonic Orchestra changed its name in 1988, giving birth to the Jalisco Philharmonic (Filarmónica de Jalisco). It was intended that the whole State of Jalisco would receive its benefits. Every member of the orchestra has been selected for the quality of auditions given by aspiring interpreters, selecting its members among the very best to guarantee uniformity in sound and technical perfection of performance each of them should have. This allows us to consider that the Jalisco Philharmonic can gallantly measure up to all kinds of repertoire, including the most ambitious modern compositions. Héctor Guzmán is now emeritus conductor of the Jalisco Philarmonic and led the orchestra from 2004 to 2010.

Members of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco

Guest musicians :

Ana Silvia Guerrero González, piano
Eliza Nathali García coffeen, flauta
Víctor Jesús Frausto Zamora
María Monserrat Velázquez Gómez
Sergio Rentería Castillo, contrafagot
Christian Johanes Topp, arpa

| arriba |