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A MESSAGE FROM
MAX BRAGADO-DARMAN
Friday, February 27, 2009
Dear Friends,
I thought that you might like some
information about my activities in Spain. The Flamenco Association of
Andalucía is presenting concerts in homage to a great musician, pianist
and composer whose name is Arturo Pavón. The concerts are taking place
in Córdoba and Seville with the Symphonic Orchestra of Córdoba. Pavón
was a unique pianist who performed at the piano “Flamenco” music and
made this instrument sound like a guitar through his inventiveness and
creative improvisations. I heard him perform when I was a young music
student, and I have admired him all my life.
This project has been unique for I
have been in charge of reediting his “Suite Flamenca” which needed to be
reconstructed from a missing score and some existing and damaged
orchestral parts that his widow had in her possession. The process
started last June and thanks to the internet I have been able to correct
and guide the orchestration process and to have the score and parts
ready for this concert. It requires three soloists, all experts in
flamenco improvisational style: Piano, Guitar and Flamenco Singer. This
may be one of the only symphonic works using the Flamenco style as well
as soloists.
There was a small preview concert in
mid February for the purpose of hearing the initial results of this
reconstruction, make the necessary changes and have the final concert on
March 17. I have enjoyed very much working on this project for it has
shown me the possibility of elevating the popular idiom of Flamenco in
its most pure form to the symphonic realm.
I look forward to this concert and
the possibility of introducing this work to American audiences in the
future.
All the best,
Max Bragado-Darman
Valladolid, Spain |
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Max Bragado-Darman,
music director
Monterey Symphony |
 In
rehearsal with the
Monterey Symphony |
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MAX BRAGADO-DARMAN,MUSIC
DIRECTOR OF THE MONTEREY SYMPHONY
Spanish conductor Max Bragado-Darman
was named music director of Monterey Symphony by a unanimous
vote of the orchestra's music director search committee on March
17, 2004. His
duties as music director began on July 1, 2004. He is the
eleventh music director of the 63-year-old orchestra which
serves the communities of the Monterey Bay, Salinas, Salinas
Valley, Big Sur, and San Benito County. |
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For nine years, Max Bragado was music director and
conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Castile and León, considered one of the
most prestigious orchestras in Spain. Under his
direction, the orchestra performed for enthusiastic audiences in all the
major cities of Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany. He recorded
with this ensemble many unknown works of the Spanish repertoire, as well
as most of the orchestral works of Turina and Rodrigo which are available on the Naxos
label. He also recorded all of the works for cello and orchestra by
Alberto Ginastera with Mr. Ginastera's wife, Aurora Anatola, as soloist,
as well as many works of the traditional
repertoire. |
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Monterey Symphony Music
Director Designate Max Bragado-Darman and then President Alyce Nunes
at the contract signing ceremony on Wednesday, March 17, 2004. |
Max Bragado was music director and conductor of The Louisville Orchestra
from 1995-1998. Under his direction, the orchestra grew in popularity
due to his rapport with audiences and his innovative programming. He has
worked with Alicia de Larrocha, Teresa Berganza, Horatio Gutierrez,
Elmar Oliveira, Anne Akiko Myers, Andre Watts, Angel Romero, Gary
Graffman, Dubravka Tomsic, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Aaron Rosand, among
many others.
As guest conductor, Max Bragado has performed with many symphony
orchestras in the United States including those located in the cities of
Honolulu, San Diego, Nashville, Cleveland, Savannah, Oklahoma City, Fort
Worth, Austin, and the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; the London
Symphony, the National Orchestra of Mexico, most major orchestras of
Spain, and a large number of distinguished European ensembles.
Born in Madrid in 1945 and trained as a pianist, Max Bragado graduated
from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and received advanced degrees at
Oberlin College and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Max Bragado lives in New York City with his wife Mary. He has two adult
children Julio and Ilia. |
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 Outside
Carmel's Sunset Theater |
 Surrounded
by members of the Monterey Symphony's auxiliary, the Friends of
the Symphony. |
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The Monterey Symphony is a not for profit, public benefit corporation,
supported, in part, through the fundraising efforts of the Friends of
the Monterey Symphony and generous grants from the James Irvine
Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Harden Foundation,
Stanton Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, Monterey
Peninsula Foundation, Chapman Foundation, McGraw-Hill Foundation and many generous individual donors.
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