Biography

James Conlon began his tenure as Music Director of Ravinia Festival during the 2005 season, the first season of the second century of North America's oldest music festival. He has been a favorite guest conductor at Ravinia, making almost annual appearances since 1977.

One of today’s most highly distinguished conductors, Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire, and developed enduring relationships with the world's most prestigious symphony orchestras and opera houses through over 30 years of conducting. In addition to being named Music Director of the Ravinia Festival in 2005, he will become Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera in the 2006-07 season, and continues to serve as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, America's oldest choral festival, where he celebrated his 25th anniversary in 2004. Conlon has served as Principal Conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995-2004); 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). He is continually engaged to guest-conduct the major orchestras and opera houses throughout North America and Europe.

Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974 at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Conlon has appeared with virtually every major North American and European orchestra. He has also appeared with many of the world's major opera companies, including Teatro alla Scala (Milan), the Royal Opera at Covent Garden (London), the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence).

Associated for almost 30 years with the Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut in 1976, Conlon has conducted more than 250 performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech repertoire. Having held the longest tenure of any conductor since 1939 at the Paris Opera, Conlon concluded his directorship there in July 2004. His leadership is associated with an increase in artistic standards, overall productivity and attendance, which, in an era of diminishing audiences, has increased exponentially in the past decade. He conducted 32 operas with a total of over 357 performances there.

During the 2005-06 season Conlon conducted the world premiere performances of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy at the Metropolitan Opera. He is also collaborating with director Kenneth Branagh on a film adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Also this season, Conlon led performances of Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, and guest-conducted many of North America’s major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. In Europe during the 2005-06 season he led the London BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Sinfonica de Madrid, Orchestre National de France, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Russian National Philharmonic and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. A graduate and former faculty member of The Juilliard School, Conlon led the Juilliard Orchestra in several concerts celebrating the institution’s 100th anniversary, including concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives were affected by the Holocaust, Conlon continues to program this music with as many American and European orchestras as possible and will emphasize this repertoire at Ravinia and in upcoming seasons at the Los Angeles Opera. This includes the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Bohuslav Martinu, Erich Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann and Erwin Schulhoff. Conlon launched an exploration of this repertoire at Ravinia in 2005, leading a production of Viktor Ullmann's chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis at the Temple Sholom in Chicago.

Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians, in addition to his continual work with Juilliard ensembles and has devoted his time to teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Tanglewood Music Center. He will become actively involved in Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as Ravinia's model community outreach and education programs and plans to help lead and expand educational projects during his tenure at the Los Angeles Opera. He has been active with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1997, where he not only conducts the final round of the competition, but also initiated a program through which he leads master classes and coaches finalists. His work in the past two competitions was taped and aired in a special series on PBS, the most recent of which debuts in spring 2006. Conlon conducted his first Ravinia Festival Gala with Cliburn making a rare concert appearance as soloist last summer.

Conlon has recorded extensively for the EMI, ERATO, Capriccio and SONY Classical labels. He made his first recording for Telarc of the world premiere of Franz Liszt's St. Stanislaus oratorio, released in January 2004. A champion of the works of Alexander Zemlinsky, he has made nine recordings of the composer's operas and orchestral works with the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic for EMI. Several of these recordings individually have earned prestigious international awards, and in October 2002, the series was awarded the 2002 ECHO Classic Award for "Editorial Achievement of the Year." Conlon has also inaugurated a new series of 20th century works with Capriccio, a CD of works by Erwin Schulhoff with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and a CD/DVD of the works of Viktor Ullmann with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Award for Excellence). His other Capriccio recordings include the works of Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Dmitri Shostakovich with violinist Vladimir Spivakov and the Cologne Philharmonic. His most recent recording is a CD of works by Bohislav Martinu with the Bayerischer Rundfunk on Capriccio.

During the 2002-03 season, PBS aired "Concerto," six half-hour shows hosted by Conlon. Among his other recent television appearances on PBS are "Cincinnati May Festival 2000," as well as "Playing on the Edge" and "Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon," two documentaries featuring his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn Competition. PBS will air a series of six shows hosted by Conlon on the 12th Cliburn Competition, entitled “Encore,” beginning this spring.

Conlon made his professional debut in 1971 conducting Boris Godunov at the Spoleto Festival and his New York debut the following year while still a student, leading a Juilliard production of La Bohème on the recommendation of Maria Callas.

In 1999, Conlon received the Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer’s music to international attention. He recently received one of five Opera News Awards given in recognition of distinguished contributions from leading figures in the world of opera. In November 2004, The New York Public Library honored him as a "Library Lion," an annual award given to individuals in recognition of their contributions through their work. He 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, Conlon received France’s highest distinction—the Légion d’Honneur—from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac.