The Tenerife Symphonic Orchestra is one of the Spain’s most prestigious music institutions due to its trajectory, quality and innovative character throughout the years and serves as a “CULTURAL AMBASSADOR” for the society of Tenerife both on and off the island, it is a Project of the Cabildo de Tenerife, the administration upon which it depends. Over its more than 85-year history, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife has had six principal conductors. The initial stage was led by Santiago Sabina, followed by Armando Alfonso, Edmon Colomer, Victor Pablo Pérez -curently tne honorary conductor-, Lü Jia and Michael Nesterowicz. Additionally, Antonio Mendez has served as the principal conductor of the ensemble.
La Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife takes on all the tasks of an entity its magnitude whtis a concert program that covers all genres and eras. A fundamental part of it season are also all the socio-cultural concerts and events, including educational concerts, collaborations with institutions dedicated to people at risk of social exclusion and programs for the talent of the island. The orchestra’s participation in various Canary Islands festivals, such as the International Music Festival of the Canary Islands, the Tenerife International Film Music Festival (Fimucité), and the Canarias Jazz & More International Festival, plays a significant role in its activities. Moreover, the orchestra is involved in the Tenerife Opera Season, a project organized by the Cabildo de Tenerife. Overall, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra performs over sixty concerts each year, collaborating with a wide-ranging range of social and cultural organizations on the island.
Over the years, the Tenerife Symphonic Orchestra has become the cultural reference point of the island and has been ambassador on the national and international tours it has carried out, with notable performances In Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and China among other stages.
The orchestra has been at the forefront of educational initiatives, offering educational concerts for students and presenting popular concerts for over 25 years, attracting more than 15,000 attendees. This tradition tarted with the Christmas concert and later expanded to include the concert for the Cristo de La Laguna. Many of the orchestra’s thirty-plus recorded albums, released under labels such as Auvidis, Decca, and Deutsche Grammophon, have received national and international recognition. In 1996, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra was awarded the Ondas Prize.
Throughout its trajectory, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra has collaborated with renowned international artists. Among them are conductors Jesús López Cobos, Alberto Zedda, Vasily Petrenko, Leopold Hager, Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Biondi, Marc Minkowski, Eliahu Inbal, Günther Herbig, Josep Pons, Krzysztof Penderecki, Christian Badea, Jean Jacques Kantorow, Gianandrea Noseda, Ton Koopman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Fabio Luisi, Christian Zacharias, and Javier Perianes, the latter two serving as both conductor and soloist.
The orchestra has also collaborated with esteemed soloists, including Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, Celso Albelo, Jorge de León, María Bayo, Barbara Bonney, Nathalie Stutzmann, Brigite Fassbaender, Barbara Hendricks, Ian Bostridge, Ainhoa Arteta, Krystian Zimerman, Kyung Wha Chung, Mischa Maisky, Schlomo Mintz, Gil Shaham, Grigor Sokolov, Frank P. Zimmermann, Dimitri Bashkirov, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Philippe Entremont, Emanuel Ax, Viktoria Mullova, Vladimir Spivakov, Silvia Marcovici, Nikolaj Znaider, Leonidas Kavakos, Steven Isserlis, Manuel Barrueco, Alexei Volodin, Alina Pogostkina, Truls Mørk, Daniel Müller-Schott, François Leleux, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Stefan Dohr, and Pablo Ferrández, among many others.
The Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife is a member of the Spanish Asociation of Symphonic Orchestras www.aeos.es (AESO, whis stands in spanish for Asociación Española de Orquestas Sinfónicas) and the Nerwork of Organizer of Educational and Social Concerts (ROCE wich stands for Red de Organizadores de Conciertos Educativos y Sociales).
