orchestra conductor,, Diego Matheuz

At the age of 33, Diego Matheuz can already look back on a decade of an international career conducting the world’s finest orchestras and opera houses. Ever since Gramophone magazine named him in 2011 one of the ten "icons of tomorrow”, Diego continues to confirm expectations by developing an intense and diverse musical career. Diego has toured Italy and Europe as the Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Mozart Bologna. In 2011, at only 27 years old, he was appointed Principal Conductor of Teatro La Fenice where he spent the following four years. During this period he conducted various opera productions, symphonic concerts and (on two occasions) the celebrated New Year’s Concert which is internationally telecast. Meanwhile his symphonic career has seen him many of the major orchestras including the Berlin and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestra Nazionale della Santa Cecilia, BBC Philharmonic and the Melbourne Symphony; where he was Principal Guest Conductor until 2016. In the 2016/17 season, he conducted in two of Berlin’s opera houses – Rigoletto at the Deutsche Oper, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Berliner Staatsoper –, as well as Don Pasquale, at the Liceu in Barcelona and returning to La Fenice with La Traviata.
Brought up in the renowned Venezuelan music education program known as El Sistema, Diego began as a violinist in his native Barquisimeto, and later became concertmaster of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. The legendary founder of El Sistema, José Antonio Abreu, discovered his talent for leadership and took him as a student. From an early age he also received the guidance and mentorship of Claudio Abbado. Diego Matheuz regularly returns to Venezuela, where he conducts the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Principal Conductor.
About his elegant and refined style, which at the same time is full of strength and emotion, the critics have emphasized "his almost sensual sensitivity towards the tone and the nuances of the music". They have also said "Diego Matheuz captures hearts and minds... ". Possessing a wide repertoire, Diego feels equally comfortable conducting Mozart or Mahler, Shostakovich or Bruckner, Rossini or Verdi, Ginastera or Márquez, and he assumes with enthusiasm new projects and programs.
Renowned soloists have worked under his baton: Nicola Benedetti, Rudolf Buchbinder, Ray Chen, Olga Peretyatko, Pretty Yende, Nikolaj Znaider, and Pinchas Zukerman. In the last edition of the ECHO Klassik awards, Diego Matheuz conducted the Konzerthausorchester Berlin with some of the outstanding awarded artists of that night including Anna Netrebko, Martin Frost, and Andrea Bocelli. This concert was broadcasted live on the German public TV channel ZDF.
The 17/18 season began with a critically-acclaimed production of Madame Butterfly in Valencia. Other operatic productions include a double bill of Wolf-Ferrari’s Il Segreto di Susanna and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine at the Teatro Regio Torino, and Adina at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. Orchestral debuts include the Orchestra Natioanle de Bordeaux, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana and the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Diego lives in Berlin with his wife and young daughter.

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