PERCIVAL ALVAREZ-PEREZ
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Originally from Mexico City, Percival Álvarez studied at the National School of Music of UNAM, at the Conductor's Institute of Bard College in New York and at the Ollin Yoliztli Improvement School. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Guadalajara, a Diploma in Music Direction from the Bard College & Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and a Diploma in Direction from the Autonomous University of Querétaro.
His main teachers in orchestral conducting include international personalities such as Jorge Mester, Sergio Cárdenas, Antoni Ros-Marbá, Harold Farberman and Jordi Mora. He is currently studying a Master's Degree in Musical Research at the University of La Rioja.
He also developed violin studies with professors Manuel Suárez and Pedro Cortinas, composition with Humberto Hernández Medrano; He also has a diploma in Arts Administration from the Claustro de Sor Juana.
He has participated in various courses in Orchestral Conducting and Analysis, mainly in the United States, Canada, Spain and Vienna, under the guidance of Maestros Mester, Mora, Ros Marbá, Eduardo Diazmuñoz, Julius Kalmar, Nurhan Arman, Gustav Meier, Janos Furst, Leon Botstein, Jorma Panula, Keneth Kiesler, and Gunther Schuller.
Percival Álvarez was assistant conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Guanajuato (OSUG) from 2001 to 2003, invited by its then Head, José Luis Castillo. From 2003 to 2007 he was director of the Cedros-UP (Universidad Panamericana) orchestras.
Between 2006 and 2008 he held the chair of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Conservatory of the State of Mexico. From March 2011 to May 2019, he was the Artistic Director of the Camerata Mazatlán and director of the Escuela Superior de Música y Canto de Mazatlán.
Among other orchestras that have been under his baton are the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the Xalapa Symphony, the Orford Festival Orchestra in Québec (Canada), the Vallés Symphony (Catalonia), the Fine Arts Opera Orchestra, the Philharmonic of the State of Querétaro, Sinaloa Symphony of the Arts, Yucatan Symphony, Philharmonic of Jalisco, Aguascalientes Symphony, Symphony of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Symphony of the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo, Carlos Chávez Symphony, Chamber of Fine Arts Arts, of the IPN, of Baja California, of the State of Puebla, of the Chamber of the University of Michoacán, of the Juárez University of Durango, the Youth Symphony of the State of Mexico and of the Chamber of the Pan-American University.
He has conducted prominent soloists such as Jorge Federico Osorio, Manuel Ramos, Christoph Hartmann, Francesco Di Rosa, Robert Aust, Scott Coulter, Luz María Puente, Carlos Osuna, José Adán Pérez, Iván Manzanilla, Mauricio Soto, David Pozos and Cuauhtémoc Rivera.
Among the operatic productions he has directed are Attila (Verdi), Elixir of Love (Donizetti), Tosca (Puccini), Bastián and Bastiana, Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Puss in Boots, Una voce in off (Montsalvatge), La serva padrona (Pergolesi), Don Pasquale (Donizetti), Rigoletto (Verdi), Dido & Æneas (Purcell), Tchaikovsky's ballets The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty; and as an assistant director on Kaija Saariaho's Distant Love (2019).
Percival Álvarez-Pérez has received a scholarship in orchestral conducting thanks to the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) during the periods 2005-2006 and 2007-2008.
