James Conlon

File:James Conlon Encore.jpg

DVD James Conlon on PBS

James Conlon (born Queens, New York 1950), is an American conductor.

Early years

Conlon grew up in a family of five children. 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. His siblings were not musically inclined, nor were his parents. When he was eleven, he went to a production of La traviata by an amateur company founded by the mother of a friend. 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.

Education

He entered the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music and Art at the age of fifteen and at eighteen he was accepted into the Aspen Institute 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.

In 1972, at a scheduled Juilliard production of La Bohème directed by Michael Cacoyannis, conductor Thomas Schippers suddenly pulled out. At the time, Maria Callas was doing a series of master classeses at Juilliard and heard Conlon in rehearsal. She suggested to Juilliard’s president, Peter Mennin, that Conlon should step in to conduct.

Career

Conlon received the conducting award of the American National Orchestral Association and in 1974 became the youngest conductor engaged for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s subscription series. In 1976 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut and his British debut with the Scottish Opera, and in 1979 he debuted at Covent Garden. After engagements with the Paris Opéra, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Lyric Opera, Conlon became chief conductor of the Cologne Opera in 1989. In 1996 he was appointed music director of the Opéra National de Paris while serving concurrently as Music Director of the city of Cologne, Germany.

Since his New York Philharmonic debut in 1974 at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, Mr. 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, Mr. Conlon has conducted more than 250 performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech repertoire.

Conlon has held several major European posts, including Principal Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (1983-1991), General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2002), where he was simultaneously Music Director 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. His leadership is associated with an increase in artistic standards, overall productivity and attendance, which, in an era of diminishing audiences, has increased exponentially in the past decade.

Los Angeles Opera

Since the 2006-2007 season, Conlon is the Music Director of Los Angeles Opera. He is also currently Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, and continues to serve as Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, a post he has held since 1979. In September 2007, Conlon extended his LA Opera contract through the 2010-2011 season.

His work at LA Opera includes a series called “Recovered Voices”, a multi-year project during which Conlon will bring the music of composers affected by the Holocaust to the LA Opera stage. The series begins this season with a double-bill of Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg and Viktor Ullmann’s Der zebrochene Krug, and will include operas by composers such as Schreker and Braunfels, among others, in future seasons. Since beginning his tenure at LA Opera, Mr. Conlon has sought to establish a Wagnerian tradition in LA, and this season’s Tristan is one of seven Wagnerian works he will conduct there over the next four years, including the first ever performance in LA of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen beginning in 2008-09.

Pedagogy

Also this season, Conlon begins a two-year collaboration with his alma mater, The Juilliard School, consisting of a special artist residency beginning in Fall 2007. Mr. Conlon will work with the school’s young artists in its three divisions – dance, drama, music – in an educational project meant to promote growth and historical curiosity in students and audience members alike. The cross-genre project will consist of performances, symposia, master classes, and coaching. In addition to study and performance of the lesser-known repertoire of composers affected by the rise of Nazism and the events of WWII, of which he is an ardent champion, Mr. Conlon will moderate symposia and speak about the role of the artist in current times.

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 the Holocaust, Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music in North America and Europe. This includes the works of such composers as Alexander von Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Kurt Weill, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Ernst Krenek. In addition to “Recovered Voices” at LA Opera, as Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, each summer Conlon presents a different composer from this group with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has highlighted works of Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Alexander von Zemlinsky thus far. A production of Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, conceived by Conlon, has traveled extensively since it's first showing in New York. Produced in cooperation with The Juilliard School, it has since been reprised at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Ravinia Festival, in cooperation with the New World Symphony, The Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where it was performed in 2004 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

Mentorship

Conlon is committed to working with young pre-professional musicians and, in addition to his continual work with Juilliard ensembles and his newly launched residency there, has devoted his time to teaching at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Tanglewood Music Center. He will become actively involved in the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as Ravinia’s model community outreach and education programs, and plans to help lead and expand educational projects during his tenure at Los Angeles Opera. Conlon has been active with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1997, where he not only conducts the final round of the competition, but also initiated a program through which he leads master classes and coaches finalists. His work in several competitions was taped and aired in a special series on PBS, the most recent of which debuted in spring 2006.

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.” Mr. 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 Bohislav Martinu with the Bayerischer Rundfunk on Capriccio.

Television

PBS aired a series of six shows hosted by Mr. 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 Mr. Conlon, and “Cincinnati May Festival 2000.

Awards

• Grand Prix du Disque (France), for EMI recording of Zemlinsky: The Dwarf, 1997

• In 1999, Mr. Conlon received the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer’s music to international attention.

• He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree by The Juilliard School in May 2004.

• In 2005, Mr. Conlon received one of five annual Opera News Awards given for the first time in recognition of distinguished contributions from leading figures in the world of opera.

• He has been honored by The New York Public Library as a "Library Lion," an annual award given to individuals in recognition of their contributions through their work.

• Mr. Conlon was named an Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2004 he was promoted to Commander—the highest honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture in France. In September 2002, James Conlon received France’s highest distinction from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac—the Légion d’Honneur.

• Conlon was honored by the Anti-Defamation League for his work championing composers silenced by the Third Reich. Conlon received the League's Crystal Globe Award at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park near Chicago on August 12, 2007.

Family

Conlon married Jennifer Ringo, a soprano and vocal coach, on January 9, 1987 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and the University of Iowa, where her father was a professor of Spanish. Her Cuban mother, Georgina Ringo, was also a Spanish teacher. They have two daughters, Luisa (1989), who was named for the Verdi opera Luisa Miller, and Emma (1996). Luisa acted in the 1998 Merchant-Ivory film, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. She played author Kaylie Jones as a child. Luisa Conlon graduated (2007) from the Lycée Français de New York and is currently attending New York University; Emma continues her studies at the Lycée Français.

Jennifer Ringo made her professional debut with the San Francisco Opera in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. She has performed many leading soprano roles in operas including La Bohême, Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos, the Countess in Marriage of Figaro with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and Berg's Seven Early Songs with the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She has also performed, Marie in Wozzeck, The Infanta in Der Zwerg and Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, to great acclaim. Her television appearances include a performance of La Voix Humaine at the Triennale Festival in Cologne. In 2003/2004 Miss Ringo sang Songs on Poems by Emily Dickinson by Michael Tilson-Thomas in Lisbon and in Finland.

Jennifer Ringo teaches at Bard College Conservatory as a vocal coach and is also on the faculty of Joan Dornemann's International Institute of Vocal Arts in Montreal. In addition she maintains a private apartment and studio in New York City.

Selected discography

• Zemlinsky: Eine florentinische Tragödie, EMI Classics, 1997.

• Zemlinsky: The Dwarf, EMI, 1997.

• Zemlinsky: Symphonies nos. 1 & 2, Angel, 1998.

• Puccini: La Bohème, Erato/Red Seal, 1998.

• Bo Skovhus: Arias, Sony Classical, 1998.

• Stravinsky: Le Rossignol, EMI, 1999.

• Amore II: Great Italian Love Arias, Sony Classical, 2000.

• Zemlinsky: Cymbeline Suite/Ein Tanzpoem/Frühlingsbegräbnis, EMI, 2001.

• Zemlinsky: Choral and Orchestral Works, EMI, 2002.

• Puccini's Heroines: The Power of Love, Warner, 2002.

• Shostakovich: Violin Concerto no. 1; Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Suite, Capriccio, 2002.

References

• Jim Svejda. The Record Shelf Guide to the Classical Repertoire (1990) ISBN 1559580518