LUDOVIC MORLOT

Principal director of the OBC

Ludovic Morlot’s is Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. He was Music Director of Seattle Symphony from 2011-2019, where he earned the orchestra five Grammy Awards, and now conducts several weeks every season as Conductor Emeritus. He was Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra 2019-2024. He was Artistic Director and a founding member of the National Youth Orchestra of China 2017-2021 and Chief Conductor of La Monnaie from 2012-2014.

In 24/25 Morlot takes the Barcelona Symphony to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Aix Easter Festival and to l’Auditorium in his home city of Lyon, on the back of their successes together last season at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Stockholm Royal Concert Hall. They continue their acclaimed Ravel CD cycle and champion the best of the Catalan composers on the orchestra’s own label, and repeat their hugely popular concert on the Beach (20,000 live attendance, 30,000 online).

Guest highlights include a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boulez celebrations at Manchester Bridgewater Hall with the BBC Philharmonic, and two opera productions – Pelleas et Melisande at Dallas Opera and Part 2 of Les Troyens at Seattle Opera, where in the past 3 seasons he has had great success with Rheingold, Die Walküre and Samson et Dalila.

Morlot has guested with the Berliner Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Philharmonic, and Budapest Festival orchestras, and with many leading North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago, and Philadelphia Symphony Orchestras. He also appears extensively in Asia and Australasia, notably with the Seoul Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras. Festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Wien Modern, Edinburgh, Aspen, and Grant Park festivals.

ludovicmorlot.com

Stephanie Childress

Principal guest director of the OBC

Strong ideas, lucid communication and intensely focused energy are among the qualities that define Stephanie Childress.

In 2024/25, Childress begins her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya with an opening concert in November conducting Strauss’ Metamorphosen and Stravinsky’s Petrushka. Future concerts with the orchestra include Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.1 and Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with soprano Alexandra Lowe.

This season also marks a series of international returns to the Cleveland, New World, Utah and North Carolina Symphony Orchestras, as well as Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre National d’Île-de-France and Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier. Alongside these she will debut with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé, Royal Northern Sinfonia and MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. From 2021 to 2023 she was the Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève, during which she enjoyed multiple subscription concerts with the orchestra and developed strong musical ties in North America. She is currently the Associate Conductor of the Sun Valley Music Festival.

Inspired to pursue conducting through her love for opera, the Franco-British conductor started the 2023/24 season at the Hamburg Staatsoper conducting Die Entführung aus dem Serail and returning to Glyndebourne’s autumn season for Don Giovanni. Together they mark the latest milestone in the development of a fine Mozartian, hailed by the Guardian for the “lithe vitality” of her interpretation of Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne and on tour in 2022. A passionate advocate for contemporary opera, last season also marked her debut at theDetroit Opera with Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves and the world premiere of Simon Voseček’s Ogres at the Prague State Opera.

Childress enjoys a close relationship with the French cultural scene following her second-prize win at the 2020 inaugural conducting competition, La Maestra. Since then, she has conducted Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. In September 2023, following her involvement as one of the first conducting fellows of l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris, she made her debut at the Palais Garnier with l’Orchestre Pasdeloup for the ballet company’s opening gala.

Stephanie is a relentless supporter of youth music programs and is passionate about conducting, coaching, and mentoring young musicians. She is currently the artistic director of the Sun Valley Music Festival Institute and returns to the Sarasota Music Festival in June 2025.

stephaniechildress.com

AGATA ZAJAC

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE OBC

Agata Zając is a Polish conductor. She started her musical path as a violinist, and then completed her conducting studies at the Poznań Academy of Music in Poland. In the last artistic season, Agata was the Mills Williams Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. At the beginning of 2023 she was awarded 2nd prize and audience vote at the Siemens Hallé International Conductors Competition and was appointed Assistant Conductor to Ludovic Morlot in the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra for the 2023/24 season. Agata is a former Resident Conductor of the Toruń Symphony Orchestra (2020/21) and Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra (2021/22) in Poland. She has already worked with many international orchestras, including BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Britten Sinfonia, Grazer Philharmoniker, Orchestre national de Metz, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens Philharmonia, NOSPR in Katowice, Warsaw Chamber Opera and Poznań Philharmonic.

Agata participated in many conducting masterclasses and was mentored by prominent teachers such as Paavo Järvi, Marin Alsop, Johannes Schlaefli, Jorma Panula, Mark Heron and Peter Eötvös. She was a student of the Tonhalle Conductors’ Academy 2022/23, Gstaad Conducting Academy 2021 and NOSPR Conducting Academy 2021. Agata will spend the summer of 2023 at the Tanglewood Music Festival as a Conducting Fellow working with Boston Symphony Orchestra and their Music Director, Andris Nelsons.

She was invited to many international competitions and auditions – at the Malta International Conducting Masterclass & Competition (2018) and International Conducting Competition Città di Brescia (2021) she received special distinctions. She also participated in the last Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, where she reached the semi-finals and had the opportunity to rehearse with London Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 Agata was awarded with a scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in Poland.

agatazajac.com

Jakub Przybycien

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE OBC

Jakub Przybycień is a Polish conductor and violinist. Having grown up in the orchestra, he stands out above all for his excellent understanding of the orchestral perspective. Musicians from orchestras all over the world appreciate his energetic and charismatic manner. His clear character and musical ideas inspire audiences and musicians wherever he performs and leave a lasting impression.

For the season 2023/24 Jakub Przybycień is appointed as conducting assistant of Maestro Ludovic Morlot by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia as well as Mills Williams Junior Fellow in Conducting at the RNCM in Manchester.

In March 2023 Jakub was a finalist of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, where he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra during the final concert. In 2022 he was a finalist of the masterclasses with the Critical Orchestra Berlin. During the Gstaad Conducting Academy 2021 he was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize.

Jakub Przybycień currently works as an assistant of Professors Johannes Schlaefli and Christoph-Mathias Mueller, with whom he is completing his Master's in Specialized Music Performance at the Zürich University of the Arts. He is also the principal conductor of the Zürcher Orchester Sozietät and a scholarship holder of the Forum Dirigieren.

To further develop his musical and technical skills as a conductor, Jakub Przybycień has already participated in several master classes led by eminent conductors such as Neeme, Paavo and Kristjan Järvi, Marin Alsop, Jaap van Zweden, Peter Eötvös, Jorma Panula and Michael Sanderling. He has worked with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, the Ensemble Ars Nova, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Kritisches Orchester Berlin, the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester, the Philharmonie Hradec Králové, the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie and the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra. This season Jakub Przybycień will be working with the Balthasar Neumann Ensembles and the Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jakub Przybycień's musical education began at the age of six with playing the violin. During his career as a violinist, he has won awards at many national and international violin competitions. His many achievements include being accepted into the prestigious European Union Youth Orchestra, where he worked with and learned from outstanding musicians such as Maestro Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Noah Bendix-Balgley and Lorenza Borrani. From 2014-2019 he studied violin with Professor Monika Urbaniak Lisik at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern (CH). He completed both his Bachelor's and Master's degree with distinction. While still being a violin student, he began to pursue his career as a conductor. He earned his Bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting with distinction at the Academy of Music in Wrocław (PL) with Professor Marek Pijarowski. Jakub Przybycień completed his Master's studies in the world-renowned conducting class of Professor Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts.

jakubprzybycien.com

MUSICIANS

FIRST VIOLINS

Vlad Stanculeasa, concertmaster
N.N., associate concertmaster
Raúl García, assistant concertmaster
N.N., assistant concertmaster
Sarah Bels
Walter Ebenberger
Ana Isabel Galán
Zabdiel Hernández
Natalia Mediavilla
Lev Mikhailovskii
Katia Novell
Ivan Percevic
M.P. Pérez
Anca Ratiu
Jordi Salicrú
N.N.
N.N.

SECOND VIOLINS

Alexandra Presaizen, principal
N.N., principal
Emil Bolozan, assistant
Maria Jose Aznar
Maria Jose Balaguer
Jana Brauninger
Patricia Bronisz
Mireia Coma
Alzy Kim
Mireia Llorens
Melita Murgea
Laura Pastor
Ícar Solé
Robert Tomàs

VIOLAS

Lesster Mejías, principal
N.N., principal
Noemí Fúnez, assistant
David Derrico
Josephine Fitzpatrick
Franck Heudiard
Christine de Lacoste
Sophie Lasnet
Miquel Serrahima
Jennifer Stahl
Andreas Süssmayr
Adrià Trulls

cellos

Charles-Antoine Archambault, principal
José Mor, principal
Blai Bosser, assistant
Irene Cervera
Lourdes Duño
Vincent Ellegiers
Marc Galobardes
Olga Manescu
Jean-Baptiste Texier
N.N.

double basses

Luis Cabrera, principal
Christoph Rahn, principal
Dmitri Smyshlyaev, assistant
Jonathan Camps
Apostol Kosev
Josep Mensa
Matthew Nelson
Albert Prat

flutes

Francisco López, principal
Beatriz Cambrils
Christian Farroni, assistant
Ricardo Borrull, piccolo

Oboes

Rafael Muñoz, principal
Jose Juan Pardo
Dolors Chiralt, assistant
Disa English, english horn

clarinets

N.N., principal
Francesc Navarro
Josep Fuster, assistant and clarinet in E b
Alfons Reverté, bass clarinet

bassoons

Silvia Coricelli, principal
Noé Cantú
Thomas Greaves, Assistant
Slawomir Krysmalski, contrabassoon

Horns

Juan Manel Gómez, principal
Joan Aragó
Juan Conrado García, assistant soloist
David Bonet
Pablo Marzal, assistant
Artur Jorge

trumpets

Mireia Farrés, principal
Miguel Herráez
Angel Serrano, assistant
Adrian Moscardó

trombones

Eusebio Sáez, principal
Vicent Pérez
Gaspar Montesinos, assistant
Raul García, bass trombone

Tuba

Daniel Martinez

Timpani

David Montoya, principal

Percussion

Joan Marc Pino, assistant
Juan Francisco Ruiz
Ignasi Vila

Harp

Magdalena Barrera

ORCHESTRA MANAGER

Walter Ebenberger

Management Team

GENERAL COORDINATION

MARÍA MARÍ
Planning Director
mmari@auditori.cat

NÚRIA TORRENS
Planning Director assistant
ntorrens@auditori.cat 

ARTISTIC AND PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT

MONTSERRAT GRAU
Head of the Artistic Department
mgrau@auditori.cat

JOSE SANCHIS
Artístic Production
jsanchis@auditori.cat

LETICIA MARTÍN
Music personnel management technique
lmartin@auditori.cat

MERCÈ JAQUELINE PUERTAS
Administrative
mpuertas@auditori.cat

Archive

BEGOÑA PÉREZ
Archivist
bperez@auditori.cat

TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT

IGNASI VALERO
Stage Manager
ivalero@auditori.cat

LUCHO HERNÁNDEZ
Stage Technician
lhernandez@auditori.cat

Social commitment

The social project is a fundamental part of the OBC's activity and that is why we work to bring symphonic music closer to those people in vulnerable situations in collaboration with Apropa Cultura. To enjoy these activities you must be a social center registered in the program Apropa Cultura.

An activity of L'Auditori with the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through Interreg V-In Spain, France, Andorra (POCTEFA 2014-2020).

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

Auditions

Open selection processes: