Spain’s Sinfónica de Galicia Announces Next Music Director

Spanish conductor and violinist Roberto González-Monjas will assume the role as of the orchestra’s 2023/24 season

Roberto González-Monjas will serve an initial three-year term as music director of Spain’s Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (OSG). He succeeds Dima Slobodeniouk, who has held the role for almost a decade.  

González-Monjas has been the principal conductor of Switzerland’s Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Belgium National Orchestra, and chief conductor and artistic advisor of Sweden’s chamber orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan.

Additionally, he has conducted orchestras including the Mahler Chamber,  Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, and Luxembourg Philharmonic. 

González-Monjas first trained as a violinist. Between 2005 and 2007, he was concertmaster of OSG’s youth orchestra, which led to his appointment as concertmaster of Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for six years. He plays a 1710 Giuseppe Guarnieri “filius Andreae” violin kindly loaned to him by five Winterthur families and the Rychenberg Stiftung.

His frequent collaborators include Hilary Hahn, Yuja Wang, Rolando Villazón, Andreas Ottensamer, Alexander Lonquich, Lisa Batiashvili, Fazil Say, Reinhard Goebel, Thomas Quasthoff, and András Schiff.

He is also the founder of Iberacademy (Iberoamerican Orchestral Academy), which aims to create efficient and sustainable models of music education in Latin America, providing support to vulnerable populations and emerging musicians. 

“[González-Monjas’ appointment] fills us with pride and excitement. A natural born leader, Roberto embodies the virtues and ideals that the Orchestra stands for: artistic excellence, social awareness, and talent nurturing,” said OSG’s general manager, Andrés Lacasa Nikiforov. “I am confident that his tenure which picks up the baton after nine wonderful years with Dima Slobodeniouk at its helm will take the orchestra and all of our social outreach projects and ensembles to new heights and beyond. Bienvenido Roberto!”

“I am incredibly happy to have been appointed…[OSG] is not only an ensemble I deeply admire and respect – it is also a generous family that believed in me since I was a teenager, from my first-ever steps as a 16-year-old concertmaster of their youth orchestra, all the way up to the present time,” González-Monjas added.

“This new chapter feels like a natural continuation of our long-term musical friendship, and the prospects of this journey fill me with joy and anticipation,” he continued. “I am in awe of the quality, versatility and elegance achieved by the orchestra and Dima Slobodeniuk in the last few years, and can’t wait to be taking over the helm and embarking [on] this new and exciting musical adventure!”