Pablo Heras-Casado

Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys an unusually varied and broad-ranging career, encompassing the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performances, and contemporary scores. A musical character best reflected by the quality of the long-term relationships nurtured with prestigious orchestras around the world, he continues to develop new connections and exciting programming each year. Born in Granada in 1977, his artistic journey began seven years later when he joined his elementary school choir. Soon after, he began piano lessons and progressed to study music at the Granada Conservatory. He also studied Art History and took a postgraduate acting course at the University of Granada, gaining invaluable practical experience as a member of a street theatre company in his home city, and made his mark as a composer for contemporary dance. Inspired during childhood by the sounds of 16th-century sacred polyphony, in 1994, he founded Capella Exaudi. The young musician’s research into neglected Andalusian baroque music led to the first performances in modern times of many fine compositions. He received conducting lessons from Harry Christophers, founder of The Sixteen, and developed his skills as a conductor of contemporary and avant-garde music at the University of Alcalá near Madrid and in Granada with his own ensemble, SONÓORA, and by studying with Christopher Hogwood. He made acclaimed debuts with the Spanish National Radio Symphony and Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, and in 2002 founded the Orquesta Barroca de Granada. In 2004, he worked with Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the following year was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orquesta de Girona. He also served as Assistant Conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Opéra de Paris. Heras-Casado co-founded the period-instrument orchestra Compañía Teatro del Principe to explore and revive music written for the 18th-century Spanish royal court while receiving guidance from Pierre Boulez at the 2007 Lucerne Festival Academy, where he won the Lucerne Festival Conductors’ Competition with his performance of Stockhausen’s Gruppen. Heras-Casado’s international breakthrough came in 2008 when he conducted the Ensemble ACJW at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He made his UK debut soon after with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and gave his first concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Orchestra National de Lyon. Heras-Casado made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2011 and is now in great demand as a guest conductor. In the operatic field, he staged and made the world premiere recording of Boccherini’s La Clementina in 2008, and in 2013 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the West Coast premiere of Eötvös’s Angels in America before making his debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera with Rigoletto. Heras-Casado was Principal Conductor of Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York between 2011 and 2017, performing with them at Carnegie Hall and recording together.