EDUARDO PORTAL, Conductor
Conductor and European Young Leader Eduardo Portal made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 at the Royal Festival Hall. During the following years he conducted more than twenty performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, a great number of British and international orchestras have invited him, including the Philharmonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Hallé, Scottish, Swedish and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia Symphony Orchestras, Strasbourg Philharmonic, WDR Radio orchestra in Cologne and Sao Paulo Estate Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
His performances with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Baiba Skride and Javier Perianes have highlighted recent seasons, together with his concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall in London, Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Sala Sao Paulo in Brazil. Eduardo has conducted the majority of orchestras of his home country Spain, as well as the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, Colombian National Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, Staatsorchester Heidelberg, Mainz and Frankfurt, Royal Northern Sinfonia and others.
His nomination last year as European Young Leader enables him to join his fellow European, American and middle East leaders from a broad spectrum of industries, and participate in events, talks and discussions of relevant matters affecting societies throughout the world. Personalities that attend those meetings include prime ministers and heads of state from EU countries, ministers and members of the European Parliament, CEO's, founders of prominent organisations, activists, researchers, analysts, and others.
Eduardo has recently been awarded a Leonardo grant by BBVA foundation in Spain, which will allow him to make a double CD recording of the orchestral music by composer Gustavo Díaz Jerez dedicated to the Canary Islands. The orchestra involved will be the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the project will take part in 2019. Other future plans include a New Year's debut concert with the Staatskapelle Weimar.
Past seasons have seen Eduardo Portal work at Glyndebourne and Dartington Opera Festivals, Opera Rara in London, Opera North, Teatro Real in Madrid, Opus Lírica and Royal Northern College of Music Opera.
Eduardo graduated as a Humboldt Scholar and as a La Caixa Scholar from the University of the Arts Berlin and the Royal Academy of Music in London, and as a Junior Fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He gained further experience through collaboration with Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Simon Rattle, Ivan Fischer, Maurizio Benini and Sir Mark Elder with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He is fluent in English, German and Spanish, and has a knowledge of French and Italian.
Eduardo is particularly committed to contemporary repertoire and is the founder of Antares Ensemble in Spain, whose focus is on the performance of new music and research into its links with historical and rarely performed masterpieces.
He combines his musical activities with his interest for stained glass windows and spirituality.
