James Conlon

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For the U.S. Treasury Department official, see James A. Conlon.
James Conlon
Conductor

James Conlon (born March 18, 1950)[1] is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

Early years

Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in

Douglaston, Queens, New York City. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New York City Commissioner of Labor in the Robert F. Wagner administration.[2] His siblings were not musically inclined, nor were his parents. When he was eleven, he went to a production of La traviata by the North Shore Opera.[3][4] He asked for music lessons and became a treble (boy soprano) in a children's chorus in an opera company in Queens. He dreamed about being a tenor, then a baritone, and even wanted to sing the role of Carmen at one point. Finally it dawned on him that the only way to do everything in opera was to become an operatic conductor.[5]

Education

Conlon entered the High School of Music & Art at the age of fifteen and at eighteen he was accepted into the Aspen Music Festival and School conducting program, and in September, 1968 he entered the Juilliard School of music. In 1970, the Juilliard Orchestra took an educational tour to Europe and he was invited to Spoleto the next year as an assistant doing work as a répétiteur, coach and chorus conductor. During that time, he conducted one performance of Boris Godunov. He recalled that he had fallen in love with this opera at a young age, and had dreamed that it would be the first opera he would conduct.[5]

In 1972, at a scheduled Juilliard production of

master classes at Juilliard and heard Conlon in rehearsal. She suggested to Juilliard's president, Peter Mennin, that Conlon should step in to conduct.[6]

Career

Conlon received the conducting award of the

Opéra National de Paris
.

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, he has conducted more than 250 performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech repertoires.

Conlon has held several major European posts, including principal conductor of the

Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera, and principal conductor of the Paris National Opera (1995–2004), where his Paris tenure was the longest of any conductor there since 1939. In 2015, he was named principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra
.

Career in the US

Conlon has been music director of the Los Angeles Opera since the 2006–2007 season. His work there has included a series called "Recovered Voices", a multi-year project during which Conlon presented operas by composers affected by the Third Reich. The series included a double-bill of Alexander von Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg and Viktor Ullmann's Der zerbrochene Krug, and operas by composers such as Schreker and Braunfels. Conlon has conducted seven of Wagner's operas with Los Angeles Opera, including the first-ever Los Angeles performances Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2008–2009. In September 2021, the company announced the newest extension of Conlon's contract as music director, through the 2024–2025 season.[7] In March 2024, Los Angeles Opera announced that Conlon is to conclude his tenure as its music director at the close of the 2025-2026 season, and subsequently to take the title of conductor laureate.[8][9]

Conlon's tenure as music director of the Cincinnati May Festival,[10] from 1979 to 2016, was the longest such tenure in the festival's history. He served as music director of the Ravinia Festival from 2005 to 2015.[11] In November 2020, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Conlon as its artistic advisor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, for a period of three seasons, an unusual appointment in that Conlon had not conducted the orchestra prior to the announcement.[12] Conlon conducted his first concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in October 2021.[13]

Composers from the Holocaust era

In an effort to raise public consciousness to the significance of works of composers whose lives and compositions were affected by

New World Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Temple Sholom in Chicago and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple
.

In 2021, Conlon delivered a TED (conference) Talk: "Resurrecting Forbidden Music."[15]

Recordings

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, including 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 Bohuslav Martinů with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on Capriccio.

Television

PBS aired a series of six shows hosted by Conlon entitled Encore during the spring of 2006, part of an ongoing series of documentaries on his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which have also included "Playing on the Edge" and "Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon". Among his other recent television appearances on PBS are, Concerto, six half-hour shows hosted by Conlon, and Cincinnati May Festival 2000.

Film

Conlon has conducted the orchestra for Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute (2006), a film version in English of Mozart's opera, reset during World War I, but otherwise very faithful to the original plot. The film has been released in Europe, but, as of April 2010, not in the United States, nor has it been shown on American television.

Conlon adapted, arranged, and conducted the score for the 1995 film production of Madame Butterfly.

Selected awards

Personal life

Conlon married Jennifer Ringo, a soprano and vocal coach, on January 9, 1987, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

Merchant Ivory film, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
.

Selected discography

References

  1. ^ Sony Classical Archived 2006-05-05 at archive.today
  2. ^ a b "Jennifer Ringo Married to James Conlon". The New York Times. 1987-01-10. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  3. ^ Craig Whitney (1998-05-14). "Arts Abroad; A Conductor Paris Didn't Send Back to the Kitchen". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  4. ^ Matthew Gurewitsch (2001-10-07). "Music; An American Maestro Looks Homeward". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  5. ^ a b San Francisco Symphony Archived 2008-02-06 at the Wayback Machine [full citation needed]
  6. ^ "An Interview with Conductor James Conlon, Part 1". 29 March 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  7. ^ "Music Director James Conlon extends contract; Lina González-Granados will become Resident Conductor" (Press release). Los Angeles Opera. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-10.
  8. ^ "James Conlon to become Conductor Laureate of LA Opera in 2026" (Press release). Los Angeles Opera. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  9. ^ Robin Pogrebin (2024-03-13). "Los Angeles Opera's Music Director to Step Down After 20 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-03-14.
  10. ^ F. Paul Driscoll (July 2009). "Rethinking the Maestro Mystique". Opera News. Vol. 74, no. 1. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  11. ^ Rhein, John von (22 July 2015). "James Conlon moves beyond Ravinia for a new beginning". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Appoints James Conlon as Artistic Advisor" (Press release). Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  13. ^ Charles T. Downey (2021-10-02). "Conlon's sumptuous performance of neglected rarities steers Baltimore Symphony in a fresh new direction". Washington Classical Review. Retrieved 2021-10-12.
  14. ^ Mermelstein, David (2008-02-10). "James Conlon - Los Angeles Opera - Recovered Voices - Der Zwerg - Der Zerbrochene Krug - Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  15. ^ Resurrecting Forbidden Music | James Conlon | TEDxBeaconStreet, retrieved 2022-03-25
  16. ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 1997-10-18.
  17. ^ a b "James Conlon". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  18. ^ a b "Conductor James Conlon receives lifetime achievement award from the Italian Institute of Culture". ambwashingtondc.esteri.it. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  19. ^ "Chapman tenors in LA Opera performance wow cathedral audiences". Chapman.edu. 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  20. ^ "Brandeis University Commencement 2009, Sunday, May 17". Brandeis.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  21. ^ "First Annual OPERA NEWS Awards to be Presented in New York City on November 20, 2005". www.operanews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  22. ^ "Library Lions: Former Honorees". The New York Public Library. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  23. ^ "Crystal Globe Award Goes To Conlon!" by Amy Schrage, Ravinia Festival, 14 August 2007
  24. ^ "American Liszt Society". www.americanlisztsociety.net. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  25. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  26. ^ "Dushkin Award | Music Institute of Chicago". www.musicinst.org. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  27. ^ "Two 2009 Grammy Awards to Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny". The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  28. ^ "Conductor James Conlon Inducted Into American Classical Music Hall of Fame". www.operanews.com. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  29. ^ "James Conlon Named Commendatore Ordine Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana". OperaWire. 2018-05-21. Retrieved 2022-06-10.
  30. ^ CODALARIO. "Un importante reconocimiento para el director de orquesta James Conlon". www.codalario.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-06-10.
  31. ^ "L.A. Opera wins two Grammys for 'Ghosts of Versailles'". Los Angeles Times. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  32. ^ "James Conlon Honored With Austria's Cross Of Honor For Advocating For Obscure Austrian Composers | Opera World". Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  33. ^ Tosca, December 19, 1978, Met Opera on Demand.

External links
Cultural offices
Preceded by Music Director, Cincinnati May Festival
1979–2016 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Principal Conductor, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
1983–1991 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Music Director, Gürzenich Orchester, Köln

1989–2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Principal Conductor, Opéra National de Paris

1995–2004 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Music Director, Ravinia Festival
2005–2015 		Succeeded by
Marin Alsop (chief conductor)
Preceded by Music Director, Los Angeles Opera
2006-present 		Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by Principal Conductor, RAI National Symphony Orchestra
2016-2020 		Succeeded by
Andres Orozco-Estrada
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