Passionate about the repertoire he performs, Payare chooses works that resonate with him personally and help him connect with both orchestras and audiences. Dvořák is one of the composers in whose music the conductor has already made his mark. At the Blossom Music Festival this past summer, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut with a performance of the “New World” Symphony that was “ablaze with color” (Cleveland Classical), after joining the Montreal Symphony earlier this year for “an inspiring and emotional concert” that he “directed with intensity and strength.” As Bachtrack’s five-star review continued, the program concluded with an account of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony in which the conductor “controlled the proceedings through his careful choice of a moderate tempo, allowing the effective structure to unfold with an inevitability that was hugely impressive.”
Now Dvořák’s Seventh is the vehicle for Payare’s first guest conducting engagement of the fall. Marking his eagerly anticipated Philadelphia Orchestradebut, the symphony will be bookended by Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and the world premiere of a new Clarinet Concerto by Jacob Bancks, whose accolades include honors from the National Endowment for the Arts and American Academy of Arts and Letters. A Philadelphia Orchestra co-commission, Bancks’s concerto features the ensemble’s principal clarinetist, Latin Grammy nominee Ricardo Morales, as soloist (Nov 11–13).
Photo: J Henry Fair
On the heels of his San Diego success, Payare went on to launch his first season as Music Director Designate of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) with an Opening Night program combining Shostakovich’s searing Fifth Symphony with Ravel’s La valse and Kaléidoscope by Montreal native Pierre Mercure. The concert was captured on film, and the resulting webcast is now available on Canada’s mezzo.tv and Europe’s medici.tv platforms, as well as at the orchestra’s website, where it will be available on demand until November 2. His second program with the orchestra, which featured Brahms’s Second Symphony and violinist Hilary Hahn, found Payare “at the top of his game” (Le Devoir).
Meanwhile the conductor looks forward to leading five more OSM programs this season. These include symphonies by Beethoven (May 31–June 2), Bruckner (Jan 12 & 13) and Sibelius (Dec 8 & 11), as well as collaborations with bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green (May 31–June 2) and pianist Daniil Trifonov (April 20 & 21).
Photo: Antoine Saito
The orchestra’s new venue represents a gift to its native city and the communities who live there. Set on the San Diego waterfront, with the capacity to host outdoor audiences of up to 10,000, TheRady Shell at Jacobs Park is a wonder not only of architectural design but also of breathtaking acoustic engineering. The onstage Meyer Constellation system uses proprietary digital technology to enable performers to hear and respond to one another as well as they would in a top-tier indoor concert hall, while the L-Acoustics system projects sound to the audience from six meticulously angled towers. Payare explains:
“The Rady Shell looks fantastic – and it’s by the San Diego Bay – but what’s really special about it is the sound. Up on stage, it has the amazing Constellation system, so the musicians can all hear each other as well as in an indoor hall. And not just any indoor hall, but a really world-class concert hall! It makes a huge difference, because it means the musicmaking, the textures, the colors and the risks we take are completely limitless. You can go into absolute interpretive detail, which can be challenging for outdoor venues, but not at The Rady Shell. And for the audience, The Rady Shell has L-Acoustics’ fantastic surround sound, so everyone can hear exactly what’s happening on stage. It’s a whole different level of listening experience.”
To date, only very small audiences of first responders, frontline workers, subscribers and community members have had this listening experience, at a series of free test events given by the conductor and orchestra while they await The Rady Shell’s official opening. That changes at the Inaugural Gala and Opening Concert on August 6, for which, to give a wider audience its first taste of the venue’s sonic capabilities, Payare has put together a multifaceted program. Hosted by Vivian Scott Chew, this opens with the world premiere of Soundcheck in C major, a new San Diego Symphony commission from composer and DJ Mason Bates, whose honors include a Grammy and Musical America’s Composer of the Year. It was with Bates’s Alternative Energies that the conductor opened the first concerts of his San Diego tenure, but their current collaboration marks the first time he has been involved in Bates’s compositional process. Like many of the composer’s works, Soundcheck in C major is scored for orchestra and electronics, and, as Payare recounts, it was written for and directly inspired by The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. The conductor says:
“Mason is actually going to use the whole spectrum of The Rady Shell’s sound. When he came to test it, you could see his mind was a little bit blown by all the acoustic possibilities! He was very excited about them.”
To illustrate The Rady Shell’s versatility, Payare’s Opening Night program represents something of a classical showcase, featuring string, piano and vocal soloists and works ranging from the strictly classical to those infused with the influences of jazz, Broadway and Latin America. Under the conductor’s leadership, his wife, MacArthur Fellow Alisa Weilerstein, joins the orchestra for Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto; Gramophone Award-winning French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue; and Grammy-winning bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green sings operatic arias by Mozart, Rossini and Gounod as well as a favorite Rodgers & Hammerstein showtune. To complete the program, Payare leads accounts of Fuga con pajarillo, by his compatriot Aldemaro Romero, and Stravinsky’s transcendent, exquisitely orchestrated Firebird Suite, with which the conductor and orchestra draw their festive evening to a close.
Photo: J Henry Fair
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) announced that Rafael Payare will become its next Music Director, effective from the 2022-2023 season. “It’s an immense honour and a pleasure to have been chosen as Music Director of the fantastic Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. To be given the opportunity to work, create and explore new musical possibilities with this wonderful group of artists is a hugely exciting prospect. It is my heartfelt wish that, in close synergy with the musicians, we can give the OSM’s audience many moments of joy, pride and hope”, states Rafael Payare.
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) announced today that Rafael Payare will become its next Music Director, effective from the 2022-2023 season for a minimum of five years. Mr. Payare assumes the position of Music Director Designate from September 1, 2021,taking over from Maestro Kent Nagano, who held the position of Music Director from 2006 to 2020.
Mr. Payare’s debut with the Orchestra in 2018 was a hugely memorable occasion, and his natural rapport with the OSM musicians was immediate. This connection was reaffirmed on his return to the Orchestra in 2019.
Mr. Payare’s appointment was unanimously endorsed by the selection committee for the OSM’s next Music Director. The 11-member committee, which included three OSM musicians, was chaired by Suzanne Fortier, Principal and Vice-chancellor of McGill University.
Rafael Payare, who is forty, is one of the most prominent and internationally sought-after conductors of his generation. His innate musicianship, his brilliant technique and the charisma he radiates on the podium characterize his musical style and approach. Mr. Payare trained as a French horn player and graduated from the acclaimed music education program El Sistema. His talent was soon recognized by Maestro José Antonio Abreu, El Sistema’s founder, with whom he began his formal studies in orchestral conducting in 2004.
Since winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2012, Mr. Payare’s career has advanced rapidly. From 2014 to 2019, he was Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra and since 2019 he has been Music Director of the San Diego Symphony.
In recent years, he has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras, in Berlin Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris, among others. Mr. Payare has been Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival since 2015, which was founded by his mentor, the late Lorin Maazel.
Rafael Payare, born in Venezuela, will become the ninth Music Director in the history of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and the first conductor from the South American continent to hold this position.
As artist-in-residence for the 2020-2021 season, Rafael Payare will conduct three OSM concerts that will be webcast in the coming weeks. The first of the three will be presented live this Sunday, January 10, starting at 2:30 p.m., and can be viewed free of charge at OSM.ca and Medici.tv. The next Music Director of the OSM will conduct Berlioz’ Roman Carnival and Brahms’ Symphony no. 1 in C minor, op. 68.
QUOTATION FROM RAFAEL PAYARE “It’s an immense honour and a pleasure to have been chosen as the next Music Director of the fantastic Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. To be given the opportunity to work, create and explore new musical possibilities with the wonderful group of artists that is the OSM, is a hugely exciting prospect. It is my heartfelt wish that, in close synergy with the musicians, we can give the OSM’s audience many moments of joy, pride and hope.”
QUOTATION FROM LUCIEN BOUCHARD, chair of the OSM’s Board of Directors “Today, we are experiencing the culmination of a very important process in the life of a symphony orchestra: that of choosing its next Music Director. It’s a chance to breathe new life into the OSM and an outstanding opportunity to open itself up to new musical approaches while maintaining the criteria of excellence that have always been its hallmarks. We are firmly convinced that the arrival of Rafael Payare will enable us to write an exciting chapter in the OSM’s history.”
QUOTATION FROM MADELEINE CAREAU, Chief Executive Officer of the OSM “Rafael Payare’s passion, energy and determination, his Latin roots and his engaging personality are attributes that will undoubtedly appeal to Montreal audiences, especially since our next Music Director is driven by a strong desire to get involved in the community. His talent, creativity and leadership will help the OSM continue to shine on the world stage, whether on tour or through recordings adapted to different broadcast platforms.”
QUOTATION FROM SUZANNE FORTIER, chair of the selection committee for the OSM’s next Music Director “Today’s announcement is the result of rigorous efforts that began in 2017 to choose a successor for Kent Nagano, who did not wish to renew his contract at the end of the 2019-2020 season. Based on solid selection criteria, our search was global in scope. It was an honour for me to chair this committee and I’m very happy with the result. We were able to identify a candidate of the highest quality, Rafael Payare, whom we unanimously recommended to the OSM’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors.”
