Juanjo Mena
Following his recent concerts with the symphonies of Los Angeles, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Toronto, Mena’s busy North America 2014-2015 season includes return visits to Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as his debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
His European highlights this season include his debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nash Ensemble, as well as concerts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
A guest of international festivals, Mena has appeared at the Stars of White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Hollywood Bowl, Grant Park (Chicago), Tanglewood and La Folle Journée (Nantes). He recently led the BBC Philharmonic on two tours of Europe and Spain, including performances in Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Madrid, and performs with them every year at the BBC Proms in London.
Throughout Europe, Juanjo Mena has appeared with the Dresden Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Milan and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with all the major orchestras in Spain.
His operatic work includes The Flying Dutchman, Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung and productions including Eugene Onegin in Genoa, The Marriage of Figaro inLausanne and Billy Budd in Bilbao.
He has made several recordings with the BBC Philharmonic, including a disc of works by Manuel de Falla, which was a BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month; Gabriel Pierné, which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice; and recent releases of music by Montsalvatge, Weber and Turina, which have gained excellent reviews from the specialist music press. He has also recorded a collection of Basque symphonic music with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra for Naxos, and a critically acclaimed rendering of Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony for Hyperion with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Mena’s Messiaen interpretation is said to “utterly redefine the terms under which past/current/future Turangalîlas need to be judged.” (Gramophone, October 2012).