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Diego Matheuz

conductor

About this Artist

Diego Matheuz is a graduate of the internationally known Venezuelan Sistema, and is already widely known as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Mozart since 2009, Matheuz was appointed Principal Conductor of Teatro la Fenice in September 2011. In August 2013 he started a three year appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2014/15 season in addition to his regular engagements in Venice and Melbourne, Diego Matheuz made his debut with the Philharmonia Zurich, Gurzenich-Orchester Kölner Philharmoniker, BBC Philharmonic, Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre Chambre de Paris at the Festival de Saint-Denis. He takes up re-invitations to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France at their Festival Présences in Paris and to Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Orchestra following a very successful tour of Japan and China with them in 2011.  This season also marked his opera debut in Spain, conducting Donizetti's Don Pasquale at the Liceu in Barcelona.

Diego Matheuz made his professional opera debut in October 2010 conducting Rigoletto at Teatro la Fenice, and following his appointment as Principal Conductor he conducts two operas and several concerts a season in Venice, including a recent Tchaikovsky symphony cycle and productions of La Traviata and La Bohème.  He has twice conducted the prestigious New Year concert at Teatro la Fenice, broadcast live on RAI television and subsequently released on DVD. During the 2013/14 season he conducted productions of Carmen and The Rake's Progress and in Autumn 2014 he returns for La traviata and to open the symphonic season.

Now well established in Italy, in October 2008 Diego Matheuz made his debut with Claudio Abbado’s Orchestra Mozart in Bologna. A year later he was appointed their Principal Guest Conductor. Recent appearances with Orchestra Mozart included performances in Bologna and in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and at the Southbank Centre, in London. In September 2009 he joined the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale Santa Cecilia as replacement for their Music Director, Antonio Pappano on tour in Milan, Turin and Lucerne, and has made several subsequent appearances in Rome.  Other Italian debuts have included Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Torino, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and the final concert of the Spoleto Festival in July 2010.

Orchestral highlights outside Italy have featured performances with the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, in Berlin on tour with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, and with Frankfurt Radio, Hamburg Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Israel Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony in Tokyo. In North America he has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.

Diego Matheuz maintains a strong association with his native orchestras, returning regularly to Caracas, and in 2013 he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela. Last season he toured with the orchestra to Turin, Naples, Genoa, Palermo and Reggio Emilia, and in July 2013 he conducted them in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Bogota. In the Spring of 2015 he will tour with the orchestra to Russia, conducting concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In summer 2013 he also took part in the Sistema residency at the Salzburg Festival, appearing with the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Born in 1984, Matheuz began his violin studies in his hometown of Barquisimeto before moving to Caracas.   Still based in Venezuela, his international debut as a conductor took place with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela on 14th March 2008 in the prestigious Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.