Reina Sofía School of Music Launches New "Zubin Mehta" Conducting Chair

As the new chair, Professor Nicholás Pasquet will teach an advanced conducting course at the Madrid-based school

Madrid's Reina Sofía School of Music recently appointed the Uruguayan conductor Nicholás Pasquet to hold its newly established Zubin Mehta Chair in Orchestral Conducting. As such, Pasquet will spearhead a new high-level conducting program, which is set to replace the school's Advanced Postgraduate Diploma.

The new program will begin in the 2024/25 academic year, and applications are set to open in October 2023. In the period between now and October, the school is working on securing certain details regarding the program — including which orchestras students will get to work with, and the contents of their program of study.

The program is being funded by the philanthropist Aline Foriel-Destezet, who has also made donations to institutions such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, Nicholás Pasquet studied the violin and conducting, completing his education in Germany at the music universities of Stuttgart and Nuremberg. In 1987 he was the winner of the Besançon Conducting Competition in France.

Pasquet has been the Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Pécs in Hungary, where he was awarded the Béla Bartók/Ditta Pásztory Prize and the Lászlo-Lajtha Prize for his championing of Hungarian music.

Since that time, he has held positions at the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Coburg State Theater Orchestra. Since 1994 Pasquet has held a professorship in conducting at Weimar's University of Music "Franz Liszt," where he runs a large conducting program and directs the symphony orchestra.

Other teachers in the program at the Reina Sofía will include Jordi Francés and Miguel Ángel Cañamero.