BIOGRAPHY

American conductor James Conlon has developed a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire and has established enduring relationships with the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses. Through worldwide touring to North and South America, Asia, and Europe, an extensive discography, frequent television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Mr. Conlon has become one of today's most recognized conductors.

Mr. Conlon is Music Director of Los Angeles Opera; Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, America's oldest choral festival, where he has provided the artistic leadership for more May Festivals than any other Music Director in the Festival's 137-year history, and holds a place among the longest-tenured Music Directors of any major classical music institution in the country. Mr. Conlon has served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004), where he held the longest tenure of any conductor since 1939; General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002), where he was simultaneously Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991).

Mr. Conlon has conducted more than 260 performances at the Metropolitan Opera since his debut in 1976. He has also conducted at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence.

Renowned for his interpretations of Wagner's repertoire in Europe, since beginning his tenure at L.A. Opera in 2006, Mr. Conlon has sought to establish a Wagnerian tradition in Los Angeles leading seven Wagner works over the span of four years, including his first Ring Cycle in the United States. During the 2010-11 25^th anniversary season at L.A. Opera, Mr. Conlon conducts Wagner's Lohengrin, Verdi's Rigoletto and Rossini's Il Turco in Italia. He also revives an earlier L.A. Opera tradition of performing works by Benjamin Britten. Beginning in 2011 with Turn of the Screw, Mr. Conlon will embark on a four-year initiative celebrating the centenary of the composer's birth. Future seasons will include performances of Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia, and a major and rare Britten work to be performed in the centenary year.

Mr. Conlon's 2010-11 orchestral engagements include performances with the Chicago Symphony, where he will conduct the world premiere of a new work by Osvaldo Golijov, the San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in North America and the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de France, National Philharmonic of Russia in Moscow, and the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he celebrates the 25^th anniversary of his debut at that prestigious festival. Mr. Conlon will also conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the 2011 Ravinia Festival.

In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of the lesser known works of two generations of composers who were suppressed, forced to emigrate, or were executed by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe. This includes the works of such composers as Alexander Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernest Krenek. As Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, Mr. Conlon has showcased composers from this group with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the festival's Breaking the Silence series, beginning in 2005 with a production conceived by Mr. Conlon of Ullman's The Kaiser of Atlantis (composed while interned in the concentration camp of Terezin). Since its first showing at The Juilliard School in New York, the work has been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Ravinia Festival, and in cooperation with the New World Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. At the Ravinia Festival, Mr. Conlon has since highlighted the works of Weill, Schulhoff, Zemlinsky and Schreker. Mr. Conlon received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 2007 for his efforts in championing the works of these composers. In Los Angeles, Mr. Conlon initiated a "Recovered Voices" series - a multi-year project during which he brought the music of composers affected by the Nazi regime to the L.A. Opera stage. Since the series began, he has conducted the U.S. premiere of Schreker's The Stigmatized, Walter Braunfels' The Birds and a double bill of Zemlinsky's The Dwarf and Ullmann's The Broken Jug.

Mr. Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians and, in addition to his continual work with Juilliard ensembles, has devoted his time to teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School, New World Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center and Ravinia Music Festival. Since 1997, he has been involved with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he initiated a program in which he leads master classes, coaches finalists, and conducts the final round of the competition. Mr. Conlon's work in several of the competition has been featured in three PBS programs: Encore, a series of six shows hosted by Mr. Conlon, Playing on the Edge, and Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon. Among his other television appearances on PBS are Shadows in Paradise, a documentary hosted and narrated by Mr. Conlon about German and Austrian composers of the 1930s and 40s who fled the Nazi regime to Hollywood and the movie industry, Concerto, six half-hour shows hosted by Mr. Conlon, and Cincinnati May Festival 2000.

Mr. Conlon has recorded extensively for the EMI, Erato, Capriccio and Sony Classical labels. In 2009 he won two Grammy Awards - Best Classical Recording and Best Opera Album - for conducting L.A. Opera's production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, released on DVD on the EuroArts label. In 2004, he conducted the world premiere recording of Franz Liszt's St. Stanislaus oratorio for Telarc. A champion of the works of Zemlinsky, Mr. Conlon has made nine recordings of the composer's operas and orchestral works with the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic for EMI, several of which have earned prestigious international awards. In 2002, the series was awarded the ECHO Classic's Award for "Editorial Achievement of the Year." Mr. Conlon inaugurated a series of 20^th century works for Capriccio, including a recording of Schulhoff works with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and an Ullmann recording with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Award for Excellence). His other Capriccio recordings include works by Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Dmitri Shostakovich with violinist Vladimir Spivakov and the Cologne Philharmonic, and works by Bohislav Martinu with the Bayerischer Rundfunk.

Mr. Conlon was recently inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. He is one of five first recipients of the annual Opera News Awards, presented in 2005 in honor of his distinguished achievement in opera. He has been honored by The New York Public Library as a "Library Lion," an annual award given to individuals in recognition of their contributions through their work, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by The Juilliard School in 2004, an honorary Doctor of Arts honoris causa by Chapman University in 2009 and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University, also in 2009. In 1999 Mr. Conlon received the Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer's music to international attention. Mr. Conlon's other honors include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Los Angeles for his lifelong activity and dedication to music and excellence in conducting in Italy (2010), the Music Institute of Chicago's Dushkin Award in recognition of his artistry and passion as a performer, educator, and mentor (2009), the Medal of the American Liszt Society for his distinctive performances of the composer's works (2008), and Italy's Premio Galileo 2000 Award for his significant contribution to music, art and peace in Florence (2008).

Mr. Conlon was named an Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2004 he was promoted to Commander-the highest honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture in France. In September 2002, James Conlon received France's highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac-the Légion d'Honneur.

December 2010

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