Guillermo Figueroa

Guillermo Figueroa (born April 5, 1953 ) is a Puerto Rican violinist and conductor .

Figueroa had his first violin lessons from his father and uncle at the Puerto Rico Conservatory. He then studied violin with Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimiran at the Juilliard School of Music , where he received the Victor Herbert Prize . In 1979 he won first prize in violin at the Washington International Competition . In New York he also studied conducting with Harold Farberman .

In 1972 Figueroa was one of the founding members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra , whose concertmaster he was until 2001 and with whom he made more than 50 recordings for Deutsche Grammophon . He gave the world premiere of Mario Davidovsky's Concertino for violin and chamber orchestra and the New York premiere of John Adams ' Violin Concerto with the orchestra . He was also concertmaster and guest conductor of the New York City Ballet Orchestra for several years . As a soloist he played the Puerto Rican premieres of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, William Bolcom's Duo Fantasy , and Davidovsky's Synchronisms No.9, as well as the world premiere of two sonatas for violin and piano by German Caceres . On the 50th anniversary of Béla Bartók's death , he performed all of Béla Bartók's violin sonatas in New York.

In 2001 Figueroa became principal guest conductor of the Orqustra Sinfónica de Puero Rico , which made its debut under his direction at Carnegie Hall in 2003 and at the Kennedy Center in 2004 . Also in 2001 he became musical director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra . In addition to works { Hector Berlioz ', his repertoire as conductor focuses on works by contemporary musicians such as Roberto Sierra , Daron Hagen and German Carceres . In 2007 he gave the world premiere of Harold Farberman Double Concerto at Lincoln Center , in 2008 the world premiere of Miguel del Aguila's Violin Concerto and in 2009 the world premiere of Ernesto Cordero's Suite concertante Insula .

The soloists Figueroa worked with include Itzhak Perlman , Yo-Yo Ma , Hilary Hahn , Plácido Domingo , Joshua Bell , Olga Kern , János Starker , James Galway , Midori Seiler , Horacio Gutiérrez , Ben Hepner , Rachel Barton Pine , Pepe and Angel Romero , Elmar Oliveira , Vadim Gluzman and Arnaldo Cohen .

Web link

• Guillermo Figueroa's homepage

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• Roderick L. Sharpe, Jeanne Koekkoek Stierman: "Maestros in America: Conductors in the 21st Century" , Scarecrow Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4616-6948-7 , pp. 83-84
• eroica.com - Guillermo Figueroa