Alejandro Posada, conductor

Reviews:

'Both violinists [Shaham and Adele Anthony] have a real feeling for the music – its sometimes outrageous showmanship, which Shaham is particularly good at portraying, combined with easy, graceful, aristocratic manners… Navarra makes a spectacular climax'

Gramophone

'His virtuosity is breathtaking, and he has the fiery temperament that gives Sarasate’s music an authentic Spanish zing.'

The Telegraph
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'Shaham’s passion for Sarasate is unmistakable on this CD, especially on Zigeunerweisen and Carmen Fantasy … he imbues his violin with the personality of a quirky, playful, seductive woman of whom you simply can’t get enough. Adele Anthony is heard on four of the 16 tracks, the last of which, Navarra for 2 Violins, is evidence that she and Shaham (her husband), make beautiful music together …'

The Examiner

Principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the Colombian conductor Alejandro Posada has enjoyed a career throughout Europe and Latin America. He was principal conductor of the Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Sarajevo until the war in the Balkans, working also with the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Lower Austrian Symphony Orchestra, Pro-Arte, the Vienna Residenz Orchestra, the Hungarian Szeged Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Mozart Orchestra. He has served as artistic director of the Orchestra of the Music Society of Pressbaum and chief conductor of the Baden Orchestra, both in Austria. He has also worked with orchestras in Washington, Taiwan and Germany, in Berlin with the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilarmonie and in Würzburg at the Mozartfest. In Spain, he appears with major orchestras such as Sinfónica de Galicia, Sinfónica de Tenerife, Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Nacional de España, Ciudad de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña, Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta Sinfónica de Córdoba y Sinfónica de Madrid. 

He frequently works with world named artists like Frank Peter Zimmermann, Julian Rachlin, Natalia Gutman, Gil Shaham, Ewa Podles, Alessio Bax, Steven Isserlis, Lilya Zilberstein, Simon Trpceski, Sergei Krilov, María Joao Pires, Lars Vogt. 

In Colombia he was associate conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia since 1996 and principal conductor since 2003, and he has also conducted the leading orchestras of the country as well as of Costa Rica, Venezuela, El Salvador, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. 

Alejandro Posada was born in Colombia and completed his musical studies at the Conservatorio de Bellas Artes of Medellín, graduating as a pianist. In Vienna he studied orchestral and choral conducting with Karl Östrerreicher, Heinrich Gattermeyer and Gunther Theuring at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, graduating with unanimous honours and receiving the Würdigungspreis, the award for excellence of the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. He undertook further study of conducting with Uros Lajovic. He was awarded first prize in the Competition for Young Conductors of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, second prize in the First International Competition for Orchestral Conductors at Cadaqués, and the special prize of the Eleventh Nicolai Malko International Conductors Competition in Copenhagen.