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‘Une énergie captivante'

Le Mauricien

Conductor

Following a career spanning over two decades of global touring and recording as 1st violinist with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Adrián has turned his attention in recent years to conducting, a role in which he feels more able to make a meaningful social and artistic contribution.

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in 2024 Adrián conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra on a well-received first tour of a major international symphony orchestra to Mauritius, uniting the Orchestra with the nation's two main choirs. In the same year, he conducted the Benedetti Sessions in Perth, working with Nicola Benedetti, the Ayoub sisters, the BS team, and hundreds of children of all ages across several performances. The seeds for his inspiring, empathetic music-making however, were planted decades earlier while hammering the Berlin Wall on New Year's Eve 1989, during a European tour of the JM World Youth Orchestra.

Orchestra Redefined_edited.jpg
Orchestra Redefined with Sheku-Kanneh-Ma

Adrián was Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Polish National Youth Orchestra POM LYO from 2015 to 2021, conducting international tours of Poland and Germany, and yearly live video broadcasts on National Polish Radio NOSPR. He simultaneously held the same posts with the One Tree Hill Sinfonia, a semi-professional London orchestra he co-founded.

 

​Adrián has championed innovative programming and audience development, demystifying classical music and musicians, and with OTHS, substantial fundraising. He was awarded a first-ever Arts Council England National Lottery Grant for a film, to produce, direct and conduct 'Songs of Isolation', a short pandemic-centered film connecting audiences with performers, and the past with the present.

​Adrián and Sheku Kanneh-Mason in rehearsal

After epiphany mid-way through a school of engineering university algebra lecture, Adrián conducted acclaimed public runs of opera in his native Uruguay, including Mozart’s ‘Bastian und Bastienne’ and Purcell’s ‘Dido & Aeneas’, winning early praise from the national media: ‘Fantastic: everything seems right, and by design. The choir sounds splendid. The orchestra, effective, top-grade. Unmissable; a crown to end the season’ (La Mañana). Adrián found a route into professional music-making through first training at the Royal Academy of Music, London, then as member of the Philharmonia Orchestra. ​

​Adrián studied conducting with Montenegro, an erstwhile protégé of Celebidache, with whom he learned to combine the Romanian's philosophical approach with the grounded technique of Ceccato. His first contact with conducting, aged 15, was with the late Lorin Maazel at Interlochen, USA. Maazel would become his main reference over nearly two decades, simultaneously while as 1st violinist in the Philharmonia Orchestra, and privately as an unofficial mentor. Other renowned conductors who have generously given Adrián their time, advice, and encouragement over the years, are Salonen, Jarvi, Hrusa, Steffens, and Rouvali.

 

In the 2024/25 season, Adrián will be assisting Ryan Bancroft, principal conductor of BBC NOW, and will be conducting Strauss Also Sprach Zarathrustra, Prokoffiev Romeo and Juliet, Mendelssohn incidental music from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Debussy Prelude à l’Après-Midi d’un Faune, Respighi Pines of Rome, and Walton Henry V suite, in a series of concerts as guest conductor with the London City Orchestra. e will make his Finnish professional debut in the 2025/26 season

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Fellow conductor Adrian Partington, Director of the BBC National Chorus of Wales, as ‘one of the most inspirational musicians I have ever worked with.’

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