Madrid, March 7, 2023.- The Reina Sofía School of Music, a center of advanced professional training that has been established for years among the best in Europe, will include in its academic offer, from the 2024/2025 academic year, the new “Zubin Mehta” Professorship of Orchestra Conducting, with the support of Aline Foriel-Destezet, which will teach an advanced postgraduate diploma.
The professorship will be directed by Nicolás Pasquet, and will have Jordi Francés and Miguel Ángel Cañamero as associate professors.
The selection of students will be made through auditions, whose registration will open in October 2023. Until then, the Reina Sofía School continues to work to define the selection process, the study program, and the orchestras that will be used in rehearsals during the study of the subject itself, which will be announced in the coming months, prior to the registration period.
Nicolás Pasquet
Professor Nicolás Pasquet was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he studied violin and orchestra conducting. He later completed his studies at the Stuttgart and Nuremberg Academies of Music (Germany).
In 1986 and 1987, Pasquet was selected for the National Program for Young Conductors by the German Music Council, and in 1987, he won first prize in the XXXVII Besançon International Conducting Competition (France).
Nicolás Pasquet has conducted international concert tours with several national and international orchestras, traveling through Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Latin America (Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico), the United States, Australia, South Korea, Namibia, and several countries in Southeast Asia.
From 1993 to 1996 he was Principal Conductor of the Pécs Symphony Orchestra (Hungary), with which he traveled both nationally and internationally, in addition to conducting concert cycles in Pécs and Budapest. In 1998 he was awarded the Béla Bartók/Ditta Pásztory Prize and the Lászlo-Lajtha Prize in Budapest for his support, promotion, and interpretation of Hungarian music.
Jordi Francés
Jordi Francés develops an interesting activity characterized by a broad view of the artistic event. As a conductor, he coexists between opera, the symphonic repertoire, and current creation. His closest commitments include invitations from the National Orchestra of Spain, Teatro Real, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Orquesta de Valencia, Sinfónica de Bilbao, Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, etc., as well as numerous projects with the Ensemble Sonido Extremo, of which he is artistic director. He has also conducted the BBC Phil., Orquesta de Rtve, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and many other ensembles in Europe and America.
Miguel Ángel Cañamero
A native of Valencia, where he began his musical education at the José Iturbi Municipal Conservatory and the Joaquín Rodrigo Higher Conservatory, studying piano, organ, and choral conducting, always obtaining the highest grades, as well as five honorary awards and the José Iturbi Award for Best Academic Record.
In 1999, with a grant from the Valencian Institute of Music and after graduating in Piano and Choral Conducting, he entered the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied advanced studies with professors Gulyás Istvan (piano), Klezli János (singing), Kollár Éva and Erdei Péter (choral conducting). This period will be decisive and of great influence in his training as a conductor, as he came into contact with the great Hungarian and Central European choral tradition. In 2001 he was a finalist and special prize winner in the “I International Competition for Young Choral Conductors”, held in Budapest.
