François López-Ferrer
A | SAm | sundry
Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile
Assistent Staff Conductor Cincinnati Symphony (as of September 2019)
Full Biography
François López-Ferrer recently came to international attention after a critically acclaimed debut with the Verbier Festival Orchestra, jumping in for Iván Fischer and conducting alongside Sir Simon Rattle and Gabor Takacs-Nagy at the 2018 edition of the festival. The Spanish-American conductor is currently in his second season as associate conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, after serving two years as assistant conductor, and serves as principal conductor of the Ballet Nacional Chileno. He was recently awarded the third prize at the OFUNAM International Conducting Competition.

François began 2018 as principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile’s Festival de verano conducting Orff’s Carmina Burana, Schostakovich’s 5th Symphony and the Chilean premier of Bernstein’s  1st Symphony ‘Jeremiah’, celebrating the composer’s centenary of his birth. This was followed by a production of Giselle with the Ballet Nacional Chileno, and subscription concerts with the Orquesta    Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, jumping in at the last minute for David del Pino. The rest of the 2018/19 season includes debuts with the Orquesta de la Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina, the Orquesta Clásica de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile, the Orquesta Joven de la Sinfónica de Galicia, and the Orquesta de la Radio Televisión Española, as well as a re-engagement for subscription concerts with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. With the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile François will conduct numerous subscription and educational concerts, as well as Coopeuch’s ‘Sembrando Cultura’ tour, to which he has been re-invited for the third consecutive year, reaching approximately 30,000 Chilean children and adults through educational and gala concerts. As part of the prestigious Verbier Festival François was recently an apprentice conductor in its inaugural 2018 Conductor Mentorship Program where he assisted and was mentored by conductors Valery Gergiev, Sir Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, Christoph Eschenbach, Mikhail Pletnev, Alain Altinoglu, and Pablo Heras-Casado. Furthermore, he debuted with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra at its annual open-air concert at La Chaux.
As a winner of the inaugural 2015 Neeme Järvi Prize awarded through the Menuhin-Gstaad Festival, he conducted the Musikkollegium Winterthur in February 2017. This was followed by debut engagements with the Berner Symphonieorchester and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León in June and November, respectively. François was Conductor-in-Residence of the 2016 Summer Concert Series of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, featuring his critically acclaimed debut at one of the most important festivals in South America, the "Semanas Musicales de Frutillar" in its 48th edition at the Teatro del Lago. He debuted in Brazil with the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre in July 2016, followed by subscription concerts with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile and renowned soloist Pepe Romero in August.

François was a semi-finalist at the 2016 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and was awarded the public favorite prize at the 2015 Operettenworkshop of the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig, led by Roland Seifert. In 2014/15 he participated in the 1st/2nd editions of the Gstaad Conducting Academy, led by renowned Maestri Neeme Järvi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Leonid Grin. In July 2013 François was invited to the prestigious 4th International Conducting Masterclass with David Zinman and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. From
2010-2012 and 2014 François was the youngest participant in the Järvi International Summer Academy with Maestri Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi. Furthermore, he has participated in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink and Mario Venzago. From 2014-2016 he was a member of the prestigious Deutsche Dirigentenforum of the German Music Council.

As Founder and Music Director of Ensemble Vita, comprised of fellow students from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory, François lead concerts throughout the Cincinnati area, reaching out to the community with innovative programming in a variety of repertoire spanning from the Baroque through the 21st-century. In 2012 he co-founded the Queen City Chamber Opera in Cincinnati, specializing in rarely performed works by well-known composers presented in non-traditional spaces.

François holds a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, under the tutelage of professor Aurelien Azan Zielinski, and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where his teachers included Joel Hoffman, Miguel Roig-Francoli, and Michael Fiday. Furthermore, Since 2009 he has been a student and protégé of Maestro Leonid Grin. As a composer François participated in master classes with Leonardo Balada, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski and Jack Body.

2018/2019
This biography is for website use only. For a full and updated biography, please email office@msbuhl.com
If you wish to revise, or receive a full and updated biography, please contact Mark Stephan Buhl Artists Management (office@msbuhl.com). Please use material of the current season only.