Musicians - James Conlon

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	Musicians - James Conlon

James Conlon (born 1950) is a prominent American conductor. He is known for both his symphonic and operatic work.

Conlon was born in New York City and studied at the Juilliard School. He made his professional operatic debut in 1971 conducting Boris Godunov at the Spoleto Festival, and his New York debut the following year leading a Juilliard production of La Bohème on the recommendation of Maria Callas.

In 1974, Conlon made his New York Philharmonic debut at the invitation of Pierre Boulez. He subsequently went on to conduct many major North American and European orchestras, inlucing the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.

In 1976, Conlon made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera, and it marked the start of a long association with the house. He has conducted more than two hundred performances there, leading a wide range of works from the Italian, German, French, Russian and Czech operatic repertoire. He has since conducted performances with La Scala, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

From 1983 to 1991, Conlon was music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1989 2002, he was general music director of the city of Cologne and served as both music director of the Gürzenich Orchestra as well as the Cologne Opera. From 1995 to 2004, Conlon was principal conductor of the Opéra National de Paris, where he conducted more than 350 performances of thirty-two operas, inlucing the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin's Perelá, l'Homme de Fumèe, the French premiere of Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg, the first Parisian production of Dvořák's Rusalka, the Paris Opera's first production of Mussorgsky's Khovanschina in seventy-five years.

In Europe, Conlon has also conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, l'Orchestre de Paris, l'Orchestre National de France, Orchestra Sinfonica di Santa Cecilia, and the Kirov Orchestra, among others. Since 1979, he has been music director of the Cincinnati May Festival, the oldest choral festival in the US. In 2005, Conlon became music director of the Ravinia Festival.

To help raise awareness of the works of composers whose lives were affected by the Holocaust, Conlon has programmed this music with many American and European orchestras. This includes the works of such composers as Zemlinsky, Viktor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Bohuslav Martinu, Erich Korngold, Karl-Amadeus Hartmann and Erwin Schulhoff.

During the 2002-03 season, PBS aired Concerto, six half-hour shows hosted by Conlon. Among his other recent television appearances on PBS are "Cincinnati May Festival 2000" as well as "Playing on the Edge" and "Hearing Ear to Ear with James Conlon", two documentaries featuring his work with the finalists of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

In 1999, Conlon received the Zemlinsky Prize, awarded only once before, for his efforts in bringing the composer's music to international attention. He was named an Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 1996, and in September 2002, he received France's highest distinction — the Lègion d'Honneur — from the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac.

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