Orchestra of Córdoba

The Córdoba Orchestra gave its first concert at the Gran Teatro on October 29, 1992, under the baton of its founder and principal conductor, Leo Brouwer , and with the artistic patronage of Adolfo Marsillach and Rafael Orozco. Its institutional promoters are the Regional Government of Andalusia and the City Council of Córdoba . Since then, he has already given more than 1,800 concerts in venues as diverse as the Mosque-Cathedral or the Alcázar of the Christian Monarchs of Córdoba, the Monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, the Santa Cruz Museum of Toledo, the Royal Theatre and the National Auditorium of Madrid, the one in Cuenca, the one in Almería, the “Manuel de Falla” in Granada, the one in Santiago de Compostela, the one in Murcia, the Baluarte in Pamplona, ​​the Jovellanos Theatre in Gijón, the Falla Theatre in Cádiz, the Campoamor in Oviedo, the Maestranza, Lope de Vega and Central Theatre in Seville, the Arriaga in Bilbao, the Romea in Murcia, the Villamarta Theatre in Jerez, the Palau in Altea, the Cantabria Festival Palace, the Megaron Concert Hall in Athens, the National House in Prague or the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, to name just a few of them.

During these performances, he has given first auditions for Europe and Spain, and has premiered works by numerous national and international composers such as Joan Albert Amargós, José García Román, Tanos Mikroutsikos, Francisco Guerrero, Leo Brouwer, Jesús Villa Rojo, Alfonso Romero, Luis Bedmar, Juan de Dios García Aguilera, Antonio Gualda, José Susi López, Juan Medina, Arthur Dangel, Zulema de la Cruz, Raquel Jurado, Tomás Marco, Igmar Alderete, Miguel A. Remiro Vega, Andrés Valero-Castells, María Teresa Prieto, Agustín Diassera, Manuel Marvizón, Santiago Báez, Alfonso Romero Asenjo, José Mª Sánchez Verdú, Lorenzo Palomo or Miquel Ortega, among others, not counting the young pool of composers who attend the Contemporary Music Festival of Córdoba and the Spanish Music Festival of Cádiz every year.

In addition to performing in the pit and accompanying ballets such as the Mario Maya Ballet, the Víctor Ullate Ballet, the Flamenco Ballet of Andalusia, the Scottish Ballet or the Royal Ballet of London, the versatility of the Córdoba Orchestra has allowed it to tackle a very broad symphonic repertoire, from the Baroque to current compositions, successfully opening up to other fields of music in collaborations with artists such as Egberto Gismonti, María del Mar Bonet, Carmen Linares, Vicente Amigo , Amancio Prada, Lole Montoya, José Antonio Rodríguez, Larry Coryell, Miguel Ríos, Randy Brecker, Manolo Sanlúcar, Tomatito , Joan Manuel Serrat, Juan Manuel Cañizares, Estrella Morente, Luis Pastor, Paco Cepero, María Toledo, Raphael, Santiago Auserón or the groups Los Secretos, Ronda dos Quatro Caminhos, Medina Azahara and the Gurrufío Ensemble, whom the Córdoba Orchestra has accompanied, live and/or in the studio.

Throughout its history, the Córdoba Orchestra has been led by conductors such as Leo Brouwer, Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano, Manuel Hernández Silva, Lorenzo Ramos, and Carlos Domínguez-Nieto. And while the list of soloists and guest conductors it has hosted over the years is endless, some notable names include Alfredo Krauss, Carlos Prieto, Costas Cotsiolis, Cristóbal Halffter, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Dorian Wilson, Antoni Wit, Pedro Lavirgen, Edmon Colomer, Enrique García Asensio, Gianandrea Noseda, Javier Perianes, Ruggiero Ricci, Montserrat Caballé, Jesús López Cobos, Inma Shara, Maria Farandouri, Odón Alonso, Pilar Jurado, Sergei Tarasov, Vladimir Spivakov, Rosa Torres Pardo, and many more.

More recently, soloists have included Felix Klieser, Carolina Eyck, Ana María Valderrama, Lang Lang , Isabella Gaudí, Anastasia Kobekina , Adolfo Gutiérrez, Pablo García López, Abraham Cupeiro and Daniel Hope , among others… alongside conductors such as Hossein Pishkar, Pablo González, Aarón Zapico, Julio García Vico, Lucas Macías, Lucie Leguay, Lara Diloy, Andrés Salado, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Beatriz Fernández or Isabel Rubio, to name just a few.

In the realm of recordings, the Córdoba Orchestra has released 49 CDs—single, double, and triple albums—on labels such as EMI, Naxos (Marco Polo), Sony, GHA, Verso, and others. These include extraordinary productions such as the double CD+DVD, titled “Sueño” (Dream), recorded live with Javier Ruibal; the CD+DVD of film scores by Roque Baños (with whom they also recorded the soundtrack for the documentary directed by Carlos Saura for Expo 2008 in Zaragoza); and other soundtracks such as those for the film “Extinction,” composed by Sergio Moure, and the documentary “Sueños de Sal” (Salt Dreams), by Óscar Navarro (Goya Award 2015). In this regard, the work of recovering Spain’s musical heritage undertaken by the Córdoba Orchestra under the direction of Maestro José Luis Temes deserves special mention.

The Cordoba Orchestra has participated in the Seville International Meetings of Film and Stage Music, the “Cosmopoética” International Festival, the Flamenco White Night, the Andalusian Music Circuit, the Malaga Contemporary Music Cycles, the Seville Flamenco Art Biennial, the “Pedro Lavirgen” Singing Competition in Priego, the “Premio Jaén” International Piano Competition, the Soria Musical Autumn, the Cadiz Spanish Music Festival, the Ibero-American Arts and Letters Meeting in Huelva, and various International Music Festivals such as those in Granada, Alicante, Lucena, Úbeda, Sanlúcar, Ayamonte, Segovia, Guadix, Santo Tirso (Portugal) or Marseille, in addition to its regular presence at the Cordoba International Guitar Festival .

Since 1992, the Orchestra has carried out important educational work and provided support to young people through various programs. These programs are made possible thanks to the Department of Education and Childhood of the Córdoba City Council, agreements with the Higher Conservatory of Music and the Córdoba and Andalusia Youth Orchestra, and collaborations with the University of Córdoba and the Provincial Council to promote and disseminate music in all educational settings within its reach. Furthermore, since 2012, the Córdoba Orchestra has participated in a Social Project of performances aimed at bringing music to audiences who, for various reasons, cannot or do not usually attend the venues where it is typically performed. Thanks to this initiative funded by the Kutxabank Foundation , the Cordoba Orchestra, which had already played in squares, churches, streets, gardens, castles and even sports facilities, has taken its chamber groups to the city’s courtyards, and has gone out to meet people admitted to the hospital, in prison, in nursing homes, among other places, also promoting solidarity concerts with different causes of social interest.

The Córdoba Orchestra is a member of the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras (AEOS). It is important to note that the Córdoba Orchestra has performed more of the existing symphonic repertoire for guitar than any other orchestra worldwide, and has also performed more Spanish and Latin American repertoire. For this reason, in 1999, it was nominated by the General Society of Authors (SGAE) and the Association of Performers and Interpreters (AIE) for the Music Award for “Best Classical Artist,” along with Victoria de los Ángeles and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. In 2003, the Music Academy again nominated the Córdoba Orchestra, along with Plácido Domingo and Jesús López Cobos, for its CD of the two Triple Concertos by Leo Brouwer and Tomás Marco, for the award for best music album.