Conductor James Conlon and the Festival de Saint-Denis will honor Sir Colin Davis in the opening two concerts of this year’s 2013 festival. Mr. Conlon will step in to conduct the Orchestre National de France and the Choeurs de Radio France in two performances of L’Enfance du Christ by Hector Berlioz on Wednesday, May 29 and Friday, May 31 at 8:30 pm. Both concerts will take place at the Cathedral Basilica and will be broadcast live on Radio France and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and streamed live on Arte Live Web. Soloists for these two performances are Stéphane Degout, Stéphanie D’Oustrac, François Lis, Jeremy Ovenden, and Nahuel di Pierro. The concerts are dedicated to the memory of Sir Colin Davis, who was scheduled to conduct the work.

WILL CELEBRATE 35 YEARS AS MUSIC DIRECTOR IN 2014

Extension solidifies Mr. Conlon’s place among the longest tenured music directors of a major U.S. classical music institution

CINCINNATI – The Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Musical Festival Association announced today that Maestro James Conlon has renewed his contract as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival for three more years (through 2016), solidifying his place as the longest tenured music director in the Festival’s 140 year history, having already exceeded the 31-year tenure of the Festival’s founder, Theodore Thomas.

Praise for The Colburn School’s The Rape of Lucretia conducted by James Conlon in the Los Angeles Times:

“You were drawn in tightly by the intensity of the piece, left dazed at the close. I can imagine this performance making an impression even in the too-large Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but in the comparatively cozy Zipper, with its warm, clear acoustics illuminating every spare, exquisite instrumental detail (especially the bass) and the audience so close to the performers, it was overwhelming.”

Click here to read the full review.