Rafael Payare and Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony

Distinguished by innate musicianship, a gift for communication, and an irresistibly joyous spirit, conductor Rafael Payare began playing horn in Venezuela’s El Sistema program at age 14 and started his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning Denmark’s prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, his career has advanced rapidly. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019; has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel, since 2015; became Music Director of the San Diego Symphony in 2019, and three years later became Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. In recent years, Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Hamburg, and Paris, besides making important opera debuts at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Glyndebourne Festival; Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera; and the Royal Danish Opera.

Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. She has worked closely with the most celebrated conductors and musicians of the age, showing a profound commitment to the music of our time and giving premiere performances of over 85 new creations. She has collaborated with Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen among others.

Recently, Barbara premiered a new live video production of La voix humaine in which she both sings and conducts, She celebrated her 50th birthday at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, conducting the Ludwig Orchestra in works of Haydn, Copland, Gerald Barry, and Kurt Weill. Future projects comprise repertoire ranging from the Middle Ages to today. A multi award recipient and recording artist, she is firmly engaged in mentoring younger professional musicians with her Equilibrium Young Artists and Momentum: our Future Now initiatives.