Josep Pons

Biography

Josep Pons began his musical studies at the famous Escolania de Montserrat and continued them in Barcelona under the guidance of Josep Soler and Antoni Ros-Marbá. In 1985 he founded the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure at a prestigious Barcelona institute of dramatic art. This formation specialising principally in the twentieth-century repertoire for chamber orchestra rapidly acquired an international reputation. In 1994 he took over the direction of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, where he remained until 2004. He soon turned it into one of the leading Spanish symphony orchestras. Some twenty critically acclaimed recordings document their collaboration.In 1999, the Spanish Minister of Culture acknowledged his achievement with the award of the Premio Nacional de Música.Since 2003, Josep Pons has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta y Coro Nacional de España (OCNE). Thanks to the far-reaching renewal that has taken place under his direction, the OCNE is today regarded as a benchmark for its musical quality and its programming.He is also Associate Principal Conductor of the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, where he has conducted many operas including Die Zauberflöte, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Peter Grimes, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Wozzeck, The Lighthouse, La Voix humaine, The Turn of the Screw, and King Roger, as well as the premieres of D. Q. (José Luis Turina) and Gaudí (Joan Guinjoan), both of which have been released on DVD.
Josep Pons is regularly invited to conduct such leading international orchestras as the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Royal Flanders Philharmonic, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie.