Alberto Urroz
Spain | Festival Director 2004-2017
Inicia su formación en el ámbito familiar en Mendigorría. Autodidacta hasta los 17 años, se gradúa brillantemente en el Real Conservatorio de Madrid en la cátedra de Joaquín Soriano. Seguidamente se traslada a la Academia Rubin de la Universidad de Tel-Aviv (Israel) para formarse con Pnina Salzman. Posteriormente, se establece en Nueva York donde guiado por Oxana Yablonskaya desarrolla definitivamente su estilo interpretativo.
Ha sido alumno de Solomon Mikowsky y Donn-Alexander Feder en Manhattan School y ha trabajado más esporádicamente con Gyorgy Sandor, Fanny Waterman, Ena Bronstein y Ana Mª Trenchi. Asimismo, ha sido becado por las Juventudes Musicales de Madrid, el Gobierno de Navarra y la Universidad de Hartford (Connecticut).
Alberto Urroz ha ofrecido recitales en Europa, Estados Unidos y Asia en salas de prestigio como Carnegie Hall de Nueva York, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid o Sejong Center de Seúl. Desde su debut con la Orquesta Pablo Sarasate en 1999, ha sido reclamado como solista por importantes entidades culturales españolas e internacionales como el Festival Internacional de Santander, Festival Internacional de Peralada, La Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York, el Festival Las Canals (Francia), el Instituto Italiano de Cultura o la Embajada de Alemania. Recientemente ha debutado en Atlanta (USA) y próximamente, lo hará en Londres.
Entusiasta intérprete de música de cámara, ha actuado junto a artistas de prestigio como la compañía “Dance Theatre of Harlem”, Oxana Yablonskaya, Pedro León y Laure de Marcellus, entre otros. Desde 2004, es director-fundador del Festival Internacional de Música de Mendigorría.
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Andion Fernández
Soprano | Alemania / Germany
The Spanish-Philippine soprano Andión Fernández was born in Manila. A soloist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2001 to 2010, she graduated with honors from the UniversitätderKünste, Berlin, and studied voice with Karan Armstrong and contemporary music with Aribert Reimann.
She is aprizewinner of Operalia International Opera Competition (Plácido Domingo World Opera Contest, Hamburg) and the Cardiff Singer of the World competition , and has sung in the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, theFestspielhaus in Baden Baden, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Gulbenkian Auditorium in Lisbon, the Kallang Theatre and Victoria Theatre in Singapore, the Glazunov Hall in St Petersburg, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Among her major roles are Susanna ( Le nozze di Figaro), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Muse/Niklausse (Les contes d´Hoffmann), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Fuchs (Das schlaue Füchslein), Tatjana (Eugen Onegin). She has worked with many distinguished conductors, including L. Foster, M. Jurowski, L. Hager, C. Hogwood, K. Nagano, C. Thielemann, M. Viotti and A. Zedda. As Agnes in Michail Jurowski´s world premiere recording of Emil von Reznicek´s Ritter Blaubart she received rave reviews.
Andión Fernández sang the solo part in her husband Jeffrey Ching’s Fifth Symphony, “Kunstammer” at its world premiere in Berlin under Michail Jurowski in 2006. Her creation of the title role of Ching’s acclaimed opera DasWaisenkind (The Orphan) in 2009 was unanimously praised by European critics: “a singer who sweeps one away, vocally and dramatically“ (Klaus Geitel, Berliner Morgenpost).
In 2011 Andión Fernández premiered Ching’s Broken Madrigals in St Petersburg and Berlin. In January 2012 she sang in the world premiere of Ching’s Concerto da camerawith the Erfurt Philharmonic. She made her Hong Kong ArtsFestival debut in March 2012, premiering Ching’s Horologiasinica at a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hong Kong City Hall, and returning to the festival in 2014 to create the role of Helyas in Ching’s chamber opera Before Brabant.
Jeffrey Ching
Compositor / Composer | Alemania / Germany
Jeffrey Ching was born to Chinese parents in Manila in 1965. He studied music and sinology at Harvard University, philosophy at Cambridge University, and music and philosophy at London University, where he was lecturer-in-music for several years.
In 2006 Ching’s Fourth Symphony Souvenir des Ming was premiered by Dmitri Jurowski and the Shanghai Philharmonic at the Shanghai Arts Festival, and his Fifth Symphony Kunstkammer was premiered by Michail Jurowski and the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin the same year.
Ching’s opera Das Waisenkind, based on the Yuan dynasty play The Orphan of Zhao and fragments of Voltaire, Goethe, and other Enlightenment writers, won the Theater Erfurt Audience Prize for best opera production of 2009-2010, a rare accolade for a modern composition. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the work as “world-music theatre, which—with a topic from darkest prehistory—brings us close to the timeless history of man”.
In January 2012 Ching returned to Erfurt for the premiere of his Concerto da camera with the Erfurt Philharmonic. In March of the same year his Horologia sinica, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of Hong Kong City Hall, was premiered by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. His last bigest works have been a ‘prequel’ to Wagner’s Lohengrin for the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2014, and a piece for two orchestras in simultaneous broadcast for the IMPULS New Music Festival in Sachsen-Anhalt in November 2013.
Ching has represented the Philippines through performances of his music in three cultural delegations to China. He was named one of the five outstanding young citizens of 1998, and was one of the first recipients of the Jose Rizal Award for Excellence from the President of the Philippines.
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Luis Meireles & María José Souza
Dúo | Portugal
The duet formed by the flutist Luis Meireles and the pianist Mª José Souza Guedes has been in permanent musical activity since its debut in 1996.
Their latest CD “Late Romantic” containing works by Widor, Pierné and R. Strauss was released in Decembre 2008, and it got wonderful reviews in some flute magazines, such as Pan (England), Fluit (Holland), Floete Aktuell (Germany) and Flauta y Musica (Spain).
Beyond “Late Romantic”, the Meireles/Souza Guedes duet recorded another 3 CDs, including masterpieces by Schubert, César Franck, Poulenc, Beethoven, Donizetti, Reinecke, Enesco, Franck Martin, Fauré and Prokofiev. This CDs won very good reviews and were broadcasted by different Radios in several countries.
Meireles/ Souza Guedes gave over 200 concerts in 26 different countries – Portugal (including Azores and Madera), Spain (including Gran Canaria), Sweden, Poland, Rumania, France, Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Macedonia, Greece, Russia (including Siberia), Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, USA (Oregon and North California) ,Singapore and Cuba.
They also recorded for the Portuguese National Radio Broadcast, (RDP and RTP), for the Macedonian Television (Greece), for the Bartók Radio Broadcast (Budapest), Khanty-Mansiisk Television (Siberia), Slovenian National Radio and Novi Sad National Radio
In 2009 they played Fernando C. Lapa’s double concerto for flute, piano and string orchestra, with the Oporto National Orchestra under the conducting of Andrew Grams.
Several well-known Portuguese composers dedicated works to them, that were played as world premieres.
As a Duet, they heard the musical advice of famous artists such as Sequeira Costa, Maria João Pires, Augustin Dumay, Aurèle Nicolet, Patrick Gallois, Istvan Matuz, Jean Ferrandis and Maxence Larrieu, among others.
Luis Meireles and Maria José Souza Guedes are both professors at the Oporto Music Conservatoire.