Biography
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Beginning his seventh season as Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony in 2007/2008, Guillermo Figueroa completed his sixth and final season as Music Director of the Puerto Rico Symphony in 2006/2007, after which he becomes that orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor. His intense, passionate musicianship and elegant and precise technique have earned him critical acclaim and international recognition, and elevated both organizations to the higher ranks of American orchestras.
The American Record Guide praises Figueroa’s first recording of works by Berlioz, Ravel and Tchaikovsky with the NMSO: “The NMSO does not concede anything in terms of polish, precision and overall beauty of tone…This is the kind of sound big-name record companies aim for and often miss…This is one of those surprising little gems that is all the more gratifying because it substantial merit was unexpected”. Critical acclaim also followed the debuts of the Puerto Rico Symphony, under Figueroa’s baton, at Carnegie Hall in 2003, the Kennedy Center in 2004 and Spain in 2005.
As a Guest Conductor he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of New Jersey, Memphis, Phoenix, Toledo, Tucson, Iceland, Colorado, El Salvador, Xalapa (Mexico), Gdansk (Poland), Santa Fe, the Juilliard Orchestra, as well as many performances conducting the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.
Mr. Figueroa has collaborated with many of the leading artists of our time, including Itzhak Perlman, YoYo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Placido Domingo, Olga Kern, Janos Starker, James Galway, Midori, Horacio Gutierrez, Ben Hepner, Rachel Barton Pine, Pepe Romero, Elmar Oliveira, Ruth Laredo, Gary Graffman, Vladimir Feltsman, Barry Douglas, Jennifer Larmore, Michelle De Young and Salvatore Licitra.
A Berlioz specialist, he created the most comprehensive Berlioz Festival in the US in 2003 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of that composer.
Also a renowned violinist, Figueroa is a Founding Member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. With this group he has been Concertmaster and soloist in performances throughout the US, Europe and Asia and made over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1995 he gave the world premiere of Concertino for violin and orchestra by Mario Davidovsky, at Carnegie Hall, written for him and Orpheus.
For ten years he was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, appearing in over a hundred performances of violin concerti by Barber, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Berg, Adams, Glass, Bach and Brahms. In the 2006-2007 season he performed with the American Symphony at Lincoln Center, in the world premiere of a violin concerto also written especially for him by composer Harold Farberman. He has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the El Paso Pro Musica Chamber Festival.
With his violinist wife Valerie Turner, they are the Founders and Artistic Directors of the highly acclaimed Festival de Musica Rondena chamber series in Albuquerque. As part of Puerto Rico’s most distinguished musical family he has appeared with the Figueroa Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center.
Figueroa has recorded the Three Violin Sonatas by Bartok for the Eroica Classical label, with pianist Robert Koenig, and an album of virtuoso violin music by Wieniawski, Sarasate and Kreisler for the NMSO label, with pianist Ivonne Figueroa.
Mr. Figueroa studied with his father and uncle at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. At the Juilliard School his teachers were Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimir. His conducing studies were with Harold Farberman in New York.
June 2007
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