Classical Hugs - International Music Festival & Concert Series
Marc Moncusi
Conductor
(Spain)
Guest Conductor - Klassika Kütkes Orchestra
Artistic Director - Reus Concerts Association
Guest professor - National Conservatory of Music of México
Marc Moncusí has enjoyed a varied and broad-ranging career. He is equally at home in the world of symphony concerts, opera and of ballet as well as in that of contemporary music.
As guest conductor, he has performed successfully all over the world with many prestigious orchestras such as the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra where, on his debut, he conducted this orchestra’s first performances of Schönberg’s Pelleas und Melisande, Strauss’s The Rosenkavalier Suite and Zárate’s Alonso de Quijada. In China he conducted the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra; in Mexico the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, OFUNAM in Mexico City, the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, UANL of Monterrey Symphony Orchestra, Guanajuato University Symphony Orchestra (OSUG), Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, Chihuahua State Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinaloa de las Artes Symphony Orchestra in Culiacán, Zacatecas Philharmonic Orchestra, State of Michoacán Symphony Orchestra, Eduardo Mata University Youth Orchestra (OJUEM), OSUAEH in Pachuca, San Luis Potosí Symphony Orchestra, Yucatán Symphony Orchestra in the final concert of the National and International Piano Competition “José Jacinto Cuevas”-YAMAHA/2016 and the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra in México City; in Italy he has conducted the Florence Chamber Orchestra, Abruzzese Symphony Orchestra at a Verdi Lyric Gala at the 37th Festival Internazionale di Mezza Estate in Tagliacozzo, Orchestra di Matera e della Basilicata and the Calabria Philharmonic Orchestra; in Brazil the Symphony Orchestra of the Claudio Santoro National Theater of Brasilia and the Paraná Symphony Orchestra at the commemorative concerts for the 2014 Europe Week in Brazil. Other notable concerts were with the Barcelona and Catalonia National Symphony Orchestra, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), the Chilean National Symphony Orchestra, the Entre Ríos Symphony Orchestra (Argentina), the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Northern Orchestra (Portugal), Denver Philharmonic Orchestra and The Hotchkiss Philharmonic in the United States, Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Symphony Orchestra at a Spanish lyrical gala sponsored by the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela, Madrid Virtuosos International Orchestra within the framework of the 19th International Piano Competition “Compositores de España” where he was also a member of the jury, “Grupo Enigma” Zaragoza Auditorium Chamber Orchestra, Málaga Symphony Orchestra in a classical film concert at the Málaga 2013 Festival, Harmonie Ensemble, Strauss European International Orchestra, Havana Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Great Theater of Havana, Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia, National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Chile, among others.
As for his operatic repertoire, he served as assistant conductor to Julius Rudel in the world premiere in English of Kurt Weill ́s opera Die Bürgschaft in 2001 in Pittsburgh. In 2011 he was assistant conductor at the Teatro de La Zarzuela in Madrid and the Great Theater of Liceu in Barcelona for the world premiere, under the baton of Miquel Ortega, of Yo, Dalí the opera by Xavier Benguerel. Marc Moncusí also conducted the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra and the Munich Symphony Orchestra as David Giménez ́s assistant and cover conductor in the Belcanto Concert Tour 2015 with Diana Damrau and Nicolas Testé. As an opera conductor, he has been highly successful with Madama Butterfly (Great Theater of Havana 2012), The Barber of Seville (Medellín 2014), the Zarzuela Doña Francisquita (Medellín 2016), La Serva Padrona at the Prospettive Music Festival 2022 in Matera (Italy) and Il Matrimonio Segreto (Monterrey, 2022).
He has conducted Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinella at the National Theater of Opera and Ballet of Albania.
In 2004 he founded the Barcelona-based Barcelona Modern Project ensemble which is dedicated to the outstanding performances and recordings of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries. Highlights include concerts in Vienna at the Spanien Modern Festival both in 2009 and 2011, in the MNCARS Auditorium in Madrid for the CDMC cycle 2008, in the Sala Mompou, in the Auditorium of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera and in the Fundació Miró in Barcelona, in the Sendesaal in Bremen at the 2010 Composer’s Polyphony Series organized by the Cervantes Institute in Bremen and at the Festival Aujord ́hui Musiques 2010 in Perpignan. Other notable activities were the premieres and recordings of works of renowned composers such as José María Sánchez Verdú, Joan Guinjoan, Francisco Coll García, Cristóbal Halffter, and Leonardo Balada.
Marc Moncusí has worked with world-class artists such as the horn player Abel Pereira, singers Annunziata Vestri, Carolina López Moreno, Mónica Danilov, Ricardo Bernal, Antoni Comas, Oscar Marín, Nester Martorell, Gaspar Colón, Omar Carrión, Josué Cerón, Rafael Blásquez and Fernando Cisneros, pianists Raphael Lustchevsky, Zbigniew Raubo, Fernando Saint-Martin and Fabio Witkowski, guitar players Raúl Zambrano, Jay Sorce and the Sensemayá Guitar Quartet, violinists Adrian Justus, Rómulo Assis, Evelio Tieles and Emanuel Salvador, violists Elizabeth Ridolfi and Felisa Hernández, cellists Asaf Kolerstein and Adolfo Ramos, Israeli oboist Yigal Kaminka, flutists Mariaceli Navarro and Megan Maiorana, stage managers Carlos Palacios, Juan Rodolfo Amán, José Darío Innella, Ivet Pérez and Enzo di Matteo, as well as choreographers Enada Hoxha and Gerd Vaso, among others.
Marc Moncusí has conducted in renowned auditoriums such as the Simón Bolívar Hall of the Centro Nacional de Acción Social por la Música in Caracas, Concert Hall of the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing and Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan in China, the Claudio Santoro Theater in Brasilia, the Bellas Artes Palace, the Nezahualcóyotl Hall and the Silvestre Revueltas Hall of the Ollin Yolitzly Cultural Center in México City, Cuban National Theater and Great Theater of Havana in Cuba, the Cairo Opera House, Concert Hall of the Karol Szymanowski Music Academy in Katowice (Poland), the Herzliya Center for Performing Arts (Israel), the Sendesaal in Bremen, the Katherine M. Elfers Hall (Lakeville, USA).