“How do you learn to conduct? The answer to this is usually: by force of practice. In other words, allowing the pretender to be a conductor, without any technical preparation, to make victims of his inexperience with the pieces, the orchestra and the audience, in order to acquire the profession by dint of “practice”, in a series of years of barbaric and anti-artistic activity in front of the orchestra. It would seem that this is the only possible way and that it cannot be expected that the future conductor should be educated by a method similar to that of other artists, the violinist, for example, who must completely master the technique of his instrument before daring to perform in public”
Hermann Scherchen, Handbook of Conducting
This paragraph describes my beginnings as a conductor. When I started I had a solid background as an instrumentist, but absolutely no training in conducting. What were my first steps? Probably, the same as those of most of the aspiring conductors: attending every course that was given close to me and receiving the first notions of conductors such as Vicente Egea, Jesus Mª Echeverría, Ferrer Ferrán, Jan Cober, Bob Sands, José Rafael Pascual Vilaplana, Eugene Corporon, Frank de Vuyst, Johan de Meij, and others. In spite of receiving much and varied formation, I realized that there were shortcomings. I realized that it was a non-continuous and non-consensual formation and that I needed something more organized and coherent. The definitive step was to contact Professor Margarita Lorenzo de Reizabal. She transmitted to me an overall vision in a global and progressive way, which made me aware of the little done and the long way to go. At this point, there was no other choice but to leave my possition for a while as a tuba player in the Municipal Band of Vitoria-Gasteiz and apply for admission to the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco-MUSIKENE where I graduated in Orchestra and Chorus Conducting under the guidance of professors Manel Valdivieso, Arturo Tamayo and Gabriel Baltés.
During this process, many people have collaborated in my training and have transmitted their knowledge to me. You can find them mentioned in the “training” link.
Likewise, many have been the solos that I have had the opportunity of conducting, renowned artists such as Frits Damrow or Gilles Milliere, to mention a couple. You can find all of them in the link “conducted soloists”.
Classical music performance has not been the only one and it is my own inherent need to create fascinating experiences for the audience from music, which has pushed me to establish other types of collaborations related to other worlds, such as magic, performance and theatre, humor or television. Thus, I have collaborated with personalities such as Fernando Argenta, Pirritx eta Porrotx or Felix Linares. You can see all these collaborations in the link “other collaborations”.
On the other hand, I have had the immense pleasure of being the conductor of seven bands until I became the conductor of the Vitoria-Gasteiz Municipal Band. Moreover, I have been guest conductor in about twenty more of them. I also had the excellent and rewarding opportunity of working with groups such as the Orfeón Donostiarra or the Banda Municipal de Bilbao. All this information can be found in the link “directed groups”.
I consider it an inexcusable responsibility to care for and protect the creators of music. I have always been aware of the need to support the collective of composers who write their music for us to be able to perform it. This has led me to premiere fifty compositions by authors such as Jacob de Haan, Otto M. Schwarz, Vicente Egea and Thierry Deleruyelle, among others. You can find the list in the last link “premiered works”.
Training
Conducted solos
Conducted groups
Other partnerships
Premiered works