BARCELONA SYMPHONY AND CATALONIA NATIONAL ORCHESTRA Music and Artistic Director: Ernest Martínez Izquierdo
The Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya was founded as the Municipal Orchestra of Barcelona in 1944 by the composer and conductor Eduard Toldrà. He held the position of Artistic Director until his death in 1962. Rafael Ferrer conducted the orchestra until 1967 and was succeeded by Antoni Ros Marbà. Salvador Mas was appointed Chief Conductor from 1978 until 1981, when Ros Marbà regained the Directorship. Franz-Paul Decker was Artistic Director from 1986 to 1991 and García Navarro held the position from 1991 to 1993. Since 1994 Decker has been Principal Guest Conductor, and in 1995 Lawrence Foster was appointed Music Director. From the 2002-03 season Ernest Martínez Izquierdo is the Music and Artistic Director. In 1994, the Orchestra changed to its present name, financed both by the Barcelona City Hall and the Catalan Autonomous Government. The orchestra gives an average of ninety concerts a year with tours in several cities in Catalonia and Spain, and contributes to the repertoire of Catalan music with many premières and recordings. The orchestra has also undertaken tours in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Romania, Japan, Korea and Puerto Rico, and in America at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC and Carnegie Hall, New York, to wide acclaim. In 2002 the orchestra appeared in the Concertgebouw and in the Schleswig-Holstein music festival. Since 1999 it has been the resident orchestra of the new Barcelona auditorium, L’Auditori, designed by the architect Rafael Moneo, and in 2002 appeared for the first time at the London Promenade Concerts, conducted by Lawrence Foster. Ernest Martinez Iquierdo was appointed the new Music and Artistic Director in 2002.
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