Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos

Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos was born in 1933. He studied violin, piano, theory and composition at the Conservatories of Bilbao and Madrid; conductionship with K.Eichhorn and G.E.Lessing; composition with H.Genzmer in Munich, where he obtained his degree Summa cum laude and also earned the "Richard Strauss" Award.

Rafael Fruehbeck has been the Principal Conductor for some of the most important ensembles including the Bilbao Orchestra (1958-1962), the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid (1962-1978), the Duesseldorf Symphony Orchestra (1966-1971), and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1974-1976). He has been First Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, the Wiener Symphoniker (1991-1996) and the Nippon Yomiuri Orchestra in Tokyo (1980-90) where he has been Honorary Conductor since 1991. From 1992 through 1997, he has been General Music Director of the Deutsche Opera Berlin and since 1994 he has been the Conductor of the Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin. He has also been Conductor Emeritus of the Spanish National Orchestra since December 1998.
In September 2001 he became the First Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. He has conducted all the most important American Orchestras. He is a regular Guest Conductor of the Berlin, Munich and Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, the various German Radio Orchestras, the Gewandhaus of Lipsia, the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra, the Japanese Orchestras, as well as the five London Orchestras.

Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos frequently tours throughout the world with the London Symphony, the Spanish National Orchestra and the Stockholm Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as the RAI National Symphony Orchestra. He obtained wide approval during the tour with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, of which he opened the 2002/2003 symphonic season and conducted at the Tanglewood Festival.
The season 2003/2004 maestro worked as the first Guest Conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie. Since September 2004 he has been its Principal Conductor and Artistic Director.

Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos has been a Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Burgos has been honored with many awards including the Vienna Golden Medal (1995), the Prize "Jacinto Guerrero" Foundation (1996), the Golden Medal to the Worth (Austria, 1996), The Golden Medal International Society "Gustav Mahler" in Vienna (1996). Burgos has twice received the Doctor Honoris Causa degree; first from the Spanish University of Navarra (1994) and then from the Spanish University of Burgos (1998).

He made more than 100 recordings with Emi, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Columbia, Orfeo, Nimbus and Collins Classics. In 2004 maestro recorded the first CD with the Dresdner Philharmonie - symphonic poems "Don Quixote", "Don Juan" and "Till Eulenspiegel" by Strauss. Then "Eine Alpensinfonie" and the Suite from the opera "Der Rosenkavalier" came outand were received by critics with delight. The СD "Encore" composed from records of 2006/2007 New Year's concerts let out more recently. In 2007 it is planning to release CD with works by Bruckner, Wagner and Brahms.

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