Reinhold Friedrich, Munich Symphony Orchestra & Martín Baeza-Rubio
Biography Reinhold Friedrich, Munich Symphony Orchestra & Martín Baeza-Rubio
Reinhold Friedrich
Since his success at the ARD Competition in 1986, Reinhold Friedrich, born in Weingarten/Baden, has been playing on the world’s most famous stages. His debut at the Berlin Festival 1982 with „Sequenza X“ by Luciano Berio and his debut at Vienna Musikvereinsaal in 1994 with the Trumpet Concerto by Joseph Haydn, played on the historical keyed trumpet, show the wide spectrum of his activities. In 2003, Claudio Abbado (†) appointed Reinhold Friedrich the permanent principal trumpet of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He is also artistic director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s Brass Ensemble.
For Reinhold Friedrich, early music and new music belong together – without contradicting each other. He has performed on period instruments with Capriccio Basel, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and the Vienna Academy. Equally, he has premiered many contemporary works by Wolfgang Rihm, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Carola Bauckholt, Hans Werner Henze, Adriana Hölszky, Nicolaus A. Huber, Rebecca Saunders and Caspar Johannes Walter. Solo concerts such as “Eirene” by Herbert Willi (Wergo) and “Nobody knows de trouble I see” by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, whose CD recording won an ECHO Klassik in 1994, form a vital part of his broad repertoire.
Martín Baeza-Rubio
The Spanish conductor and trumpet player Martín Baeza-Rubio has a highly versatile musical career, which includes a formidable career as Solo-Trumpet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (2001-2013), the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (2003-2013), the Toscanini Philharmonic (2003-2006) and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (1997-2002), as well as belonging to the Karajan Foundation of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1999-2002). He has performed as a guest Solo-Trumpet with an overwhelming number of ensembles worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Bayerische Rundfunk and most of the radio orchestras in Germany.
Martín Baeza-Rubio is Principal conductor of the Berlin Opera Chamber Orchestra since 2013. Musical director of the Kammerensemble Modern der Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2004, he has been conducting contemporary music throughout Europe for many years, being responsible for almost sixty premieres (most of them as a conductor). His Debut at the Musikverein in Vienna as conductor was in 2008, and at the Philharmonie in Berlin in 2013. He has always been deeply committed to the expansion of Spanish music. Since 2009 Baeza-Rubio has been the Artistic and Musical Director of the Almansa International Music Festival (FIMA).
Martín Baeza-Rubio studied orchestral conducting with the conductor and renowned professor, Jorma Panula. His direct and constant relationship with Lorin Maazel (between 2003-2007) and especially with Claudio Abbado (from 1996 to 2014) (with whom he worked on countless projects) taught him sensitivity, technique, flexibility, expression, vision, and an exceptional musicality, with which today permeates his work as a conductor.
Martín Baeza-Rubio has recorded for cinema, radio and television in 23 countries and participated in the recording of more than 100 CDs and DVDs. He has performed concerts in the most important concert halls and festivals in the world with the most prestigious conductors such as Abbado, Rattle, Petrenko, Haitink, Thielemann, Runnicles, Maazel, Prêtre, Chailly, Barenboim, Mehta, Boulez, Nelsons, Ozawa, Masur, Jansons, Welser-Möst, Harnoncourt, Gergiev, Wand, Nagano, Menuhin, Salonen, Fischer, Rostropovich, Termikanov, Harding, Marriner, etc.
As Orchestra Conductor his reviews have included: "great control of the orchestra, choir and soloists by the maestro Baeza-Rubio this evening at the opera in Basel, conducting Don Pasquale with an incredible musicality, great ingenuity and above all, full of life" (Michael Hug, Online Merker), "admirable enthusiasm, strength and musicality" (Luis Suñén, El País), "brilliant expressiveness" (Estrella Ortega, Classical Forum), "fundamental the work of Martín Baeza-Rubio as conductor" (Cosme Marina, La Nueva España), "with great efficiency and security, obtaining a great balance between choir, orchestra and soloists" (Tomás Marco, El Mundo), "and Maestro Martín Baeza-Rubio’s musical leadership enhanced the score, thanks to his serious and coherent interpretation, materializing the realization of a notable musical quality, with him as Maestro being the indispensable element" (Alberto González, ABC).
Among other orchestras, he has conducted the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Menndelsohnn Kammerorchester at the Gewandhaus, the Toscanini Philharmonic, the Brass and Percussion Ensemble from the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Ruse Philharmonic in Bulgaria, the Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in China, the Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra, the Korean Chamber Orchestra from Seoul, the Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica, the Symphony Orchestra from Extremadura, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, the Göttingen Sinfonieorchester, etc.
His extensive operatic background has led him to conduct Don Pasquale by Donizetti at the Basel Opera with huge success, as well as Richard Strauss' production of Daphne, Carmen by Bizet in China at the Hong Kong Opera, etc. In Spain he conducted productions such as "Curro Vargas" by Ruperto Chapí with the ORCAM at the Theater of the Zarzuela in Madrid, the "European Classical Orchestra" at the Theater Calderón in Valladolid and the "Oviedo Filarmonía" at the Theater Campoamor in Oviedo (whose production won the Spanish Opera Award of the Year in Spain), "La del Soto del Parral" by Soutullo and Vert with the “Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla (ROSS)” in the Theater of the Maestranza in Sevilla and with the ORCAM in the Theater of the Zarzuela, always with great public and critical success.
Martín Baeza-Rubio earned in 2016 the Title of International Ph. Doctor with the highest qualifications and "Cum laude" by the “Universidad Autónoma de Madrid”. His research work on Maestro Enrique Fernández-Arbós was unanimously awarded First Prize in 2003 in the third edition of the International Music Research Competition organized by the University of the Basque Country and the “Orfeón Donostiarra”. He received numerous appointments, awards and distinctions as a performer, conductor, and recognition for his cultural and educational work both in Spain and abroad. He has given Courses, Conferences and Master Classes all over Europe, Asia and America.
Baeza-Rubio is the Delegate of the ARBÓS Foundation in Europe and America. Since 2010 he has served as faculty council and member of the jury of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Wardwell Fellowship Programme) and since 2012, faculty council and jury of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Vienna).
Martín Baeza-Rubio upcoming schedule includes important commitments both symphonic and operatic, with various orchestras in Europe, Asia and America for the next few years, which he combines with the direction of the seasonal concerts of the Berlin Opera Chamber Orchestra and the “Kammerensemble Modern of the Deutsche Oper Berlin”.
