James Conlon | |
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| Born | (1950-03-18)March 18, 1950 (age 75) New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Conductor |
James Conlon (born March 18, 1950)[1] is an Americanconductor. He is currently the music director ofLos Angeles Opera and principal conductor of theRAI National Symphony Orchestra.
Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street inDouglaston, Queens, New York City. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New York City Commissioner of Labor in theRobert F. Wagner administration.[2] His siblings were not musically inclined, nor were his parents. When he was eleven, he went to a production ofLa traviata by the North Shore Opera.[3][4] He asked for music lessons and became atreble (boy soprano) in a children's chorus in an opera company in Queens. He dreamed about being a tenor, then a baritone, and even wanted to sing the role ofCarmen at one point. Finally it dawned on him that the only way to do everything in opera was to become an operatic conductor.[5]
Conlon entered theHigh School of Music & Art at the age of fifteen and at eighteen he was accepted into theAspen Music Festival and School conducting program, and in September, 1968 he entered theJuilliard School of music. In 1970, the Juilliard Orchestra took an educational tour to Europe and he was invited toSpoleto the next year as an assistant doing work as arépétiteur, coach and chorus conductor. During that time, he conducted one performance ofBoris Godunov. He recalled that he had fallen in love with this opera at a young age, and had dreamed that it would be the first opera he would conduct.[5]
In 1972, at a scheduled Juilliard production ofLa bohème directed byMichael Cacoyannis, conductorThomas Schippers suddenly withdrew. At the time,Maria Callas was doing a series ofmaster classes at Juilliard and heard Conlon in rehearsal. She suggested to Juilliard's president,Peter Mennin, that Conlon should step in to conduct.[6]
Conlon received the conducting award of theAmerican National Orchestral Association, and in 1974 became the youngest conductor engaged for theNew York Philharmonic Orchestra's subscription series. In 1976 he made hisMetropolitan Opera debut and his British debut with theScottish Opera, and in 1979 he debuted atCovent Garden. He was named director of theCincinnati May Festival in 1979, a position he retained until 2016. After engagements with theParis Opéra,Maggio Musicale in Florence,Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and theChicago Lyric Opera, Conlon became chief conductor of theCologne Opera in 1989. In 1996, he was appointed music director of theOpéra National de Paris.
Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974 at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Conlon has appeared with virtually every major North American and European orchestra. He has also appeared with many of the world's major opera companies, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Royal Opera at Covent Garden (London), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence). Associated for almost 30 years with the Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut in 1976, he has conducted more than 250 performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech repertoires.
Conlon has held several major European posts, including principal conductor of theRotterdam Philharmonic (1983–1991),Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2002), where he was simultaneously GMD of theGürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera, and principal conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995–2004), where his Paris tenure was the longest of any conductor there since 1939. In 2015, he was named principal conductor of theRAI National Symphony Orchestra.
Conlon has been music director of theLos Angeles Opera since the 2006–2007 season. His work there has included a series called "Recovered Voices", a multi-year project during which Conlon presented operas by composers affected by the Third Reich. The series included a double-bill ofAlexander von Zemlinsky'sDer Zwerg andViktor Ullmann'sDer zerbrochene Krug, and operas by composers such as Schreker and Braunfels. Conlon has conducted seven of Wagner's operas with Los Angeles Opera, including the first-ever Los Angeles performancesDer Ring des Nibelungen in 2008–2009. In September 2021, the company announced the newest extension of Conlon's contract as music director, through the 2024–2025 season.[7] In March 2024, Los Angeles Opera announced that Conlon is to conclude his tenure as its music director at the close of the 2025-2026 season, and subsequently to take the title of conductor laureate.[8][9]
Conlon's tenure as music director of theCincinnati May Festival,[10] from 1979 to 2016, was the longest such tenure in the festival's history. He served as music director of theRavinia Festival from 2005 to 2015.[11] In November 2020, theBaltimore Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Conlon as its artistic advisor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, for a period of three seasons, an unusual appointment in that Conlon had not conducted the orchestra prior to the announcement.[12] Conlon conducted his first concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in October 2021.[13]
In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected bythe Holocaust, Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe.[14] This includes the works of such composers asAlexander von Zemlinsky,Viktor Ullmann,Pavel Haas,Kurt Weill,Erich Wolfgang Korngold,Karl Amadeus Hartmann,Erwin Schulhoff, andErnst Krenek. In addition to "Recovered Voices" at Los Angeles Opera, each summer when he was music director of the Ravinia Festival, Conlon presented a different composer from this group with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has highlighted works of Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Alexander von Zemlinsky thus far. A production of Ullman'sDer Kaiser von Atlantis, conceived by Conlon, has traveled extensively since its first showing in New York. Produced in cooperation with the Juilliard School, it has since been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Ravinia Festival, in cooperation with theNew World Symphony Orchestra, theHouston Grand Opera, with theChicago Symphony Orchestra atTemple Sholom inChicago and theLos Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at theWilshire Boulevard Temple.
In 2021, Conlon delivered aTED (conference) Talk: "Resurrecting Forbidden Music."[15]
Conlon has recorded extensively for the EMI, Erato, Capriccio and Sony Classical labels. He made his first recording for Telarc of the world premiere of Franz Liszt'sSt. Stanislaus oratorio, released in January 2004. A champion of the works of Alexander Zemlinsky, he has made nine recordings of the composer's operas and orchestral works with the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic for EMI. Several of these recordings individually have earned prestigious international awards, and in October 2002, the series was awarded the 2002 ECHO Classic Award for "Editorial Achievement of the Year." Conlon has also inaugurated a new series of 20th century works with Capriccio, including a CD of works by Erwin Schulhoff with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and a CD/DVD of the works of Viktor Ullmann with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Award for Excellence). His other Capriccio recordings include the works of Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Dmitri Shostakovich with violinist Vladimir Spivakov and the Cologne Philharmonic. His most recent recording is a CD of works byBohuslav Martinů with theBavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on Capriccio.
PBS aired a series of six shows hosted by Conlon entitledEncore during the spring of 2006, part of an ongoing series of documentaries on his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which have also included "Playing on the Edge" and "Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon". Among his other recent television appearances on PBS are,Concerto, six half-hour shows hosted by Conlon, and Cincinnati May Festival 2000.
Conlon has conducted the orchestra forKenneth Branagh'sThe Magic Flute (2006), a film version in English ofMozart's opera, reset duringWorld War I, but otherwise very faithful to the original plot. The film has been released in Europe, but, as of April 2010, not in the United States, nor has it been shown on American television.
Conlon adapted, arranged, and conducted the score for the 1995 film production ofMadame Butterfly.
Conlon married Jennifer Ringo, a soprano and vocal coach, on January 9, 1987, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.[2] She is a graduate of theJuilliard School of Music and theUniversity of Iowa. They have two daughters, Luisa, who was named for theVerdi operaLuisa Miller, and Emma. Luisa acted in the 1998Merchant Ivory film,A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. She is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, producer and DP. Emma is an interdisciplinary performer, under EYC, and humanitarian activist.
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| Preceded by | Music Director, Cincinnati May Festival 1979–2016 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Principal Conductor, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra 1983–1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Music Director, Gürzenich Orchester, Köln 1989–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Principal Conductor, Opéra National de Paris 1995–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Music Director, Ravinia Festival 2005–2015 | Succeeded by Marin Alsop (chief conductor) |
| Preceded by | Music Director, Los Angeles Opera 2006-present | Succeeded by incumbent |
| Preceded by | Principal Conductor, RAI National Symphony Orchestra 2016-2020 | Succeeded by |
