Guest Artist Bio
Juanjo Mena
Juanjo Mena is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, a post he has held since 1999.
The Spanish-born conductor has worked with some of the major symphony and chamber orchestras in his native country, including the Spanish National Orchestra (ONE), the RTVE, the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, and the orchestras of Barcelona, Granada, Valencia, Malaga, Principado de Asturias, Communidad de Madrid and the Sinfonica del Valles to name a few. Increasingly in demand to conduct in other European countries, he has conducted orchestras in Brasov, Bacau, Georgia, the Bucharest Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionalle della RAI in Torino.
Mena’s future and recent-past engagements include the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria, the Sao Paulo State Symphony, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester in Berlin, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Opera di Trieste. He made his North American debut in the summer of 2004 with the Baltimore Symphony, resulting in his immediate re-engagement for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons with that orchestra.
His festival appearances include La folle journee in Nantes, France; White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; the International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Antheron in France as well as festivals with his own Bilbao Symphony Orchestra.
Mena commenced his studies of harmony, composition and instrumentation at the High School of Music in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He then studied Orchestra Conducting in the Royal High School of Music in Madrid with García-Asensio where he obtained the Prize of Honor. Following this achievement, he continued his conducting studies in Germany with Sergiu Celibidache.
He began his professional career as conductor of a number of symphony orchestras and chamber orchestras in the Basque Country, such as the Bilbao Symphony, Chamber Orchestra “Jesús Guridi”, Irún Chamber Orchestra, Euskadi Symphony, Chamber Orchestra “Aita Donostia” in San Sebastián and the Euskalherria Youth Orchestra which he led until 1999.
Mena has made a number of recordings for the Spanish National Radio (RNE), Spanish National Television (RTVE), Basque Radio, Basque Television (EITB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). He has also recorded a splendid and complete symphony collection of Basque music with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra for Naxos International.