Robert Trevino Appointed Basque National Orchestra's New Music Director

Robert Trevino, one of the most highly-rated young American conductors, appointed Music Director of the Basque National OrchestraThe much-praised David Zinman protege promises 'intense music-making' from the new partnership, to begin in the 2017-18 season.

Robert Trevino with the Basque National OrchestraMost young conductors, flushed with excitement over their first music directorship, don't set their jaw and speak with determination of the "intense work" ahead. But then Texas-born Robert Trevino, who has just been named the incoming Music Director of the Basque National Orchestra, is not most young conductors. The 32-year-old, most recently Associate Conductor at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra - and previously Conducting Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival (where he won the James Conlon Prize), at the Tanglewood Festival and Associate Conductor at New York City Opera - dropped out of school in his teenage years to home-study and concentrate on music. The result was an early degree, long, long days of poring over scores, the mentorship of David Ziman and eventually his star-making substitution (for Vasily Sinaisky) to conduct Don Carlo at the Bolshoi.

This kind of application is part of a life in music for Trevino, who has since conducted many leading ensembles including the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and St Petersburg Philharmonic. "Music-making is not a passive activity," says Trevino, "I was always taught that it's about critical investigation, about prodding the soul, heart and mind and even testing your physical capacity to create great art. I went completely against what I was expected to do in my life because I had a compulsion to sacrifice everything for music, and to this day I have that compulsion."

It is precisely that seriousness of approach that he recognised in the Basque National Orchestra when he first conducted them. "The Basque country is distinct from the rest of Spain and the players are very aware of that on a cultural level," he explains, " They're very proud of that identity and that gives them great unity although they know how to play as expressive individuals within that. They're strong-minded, hardy musicians with great fortitude of spirit. They want to work, to be as good as they possibly can. They're not easily offended, not easily scared, not easily tired. So they're going to absorb everything I can give to them, and I hope demand more of me than I have to offer so that I'm forced to better myself."

If that also sounds far from the routine approach of some orchestras, Trevino has seen it in action. "Already at our first-ever rehearsal, when with most orchestras you're still getting to know each other, by the first break musicians were coming up to me and asking precisely what I mean in this or that instance. It was a real dialogue, And when I returned for my second visit, there was no ice to break - it was a continuation of what we'd achieved before. That's when I knew that this could be something special."

Recently Trevino was asked to prioritise a "little but important concert" with the orchestra and he immediately booked a night-flight from an engagement in Japan, which would get him there just in time. "I did that without question, even though it will be tight, because I want the orchestra to know they can count on me," says Trevino, "Being Music Director is not the same as being a guest conductor. Neither is it about just my doing the programs I want and conducting the same orchestra repeatedly. It's about the fact that they are asking me to give to them and I in turn am asking for their help." He bemoans the fact that a decade ago, when there was more lavish funding for the arts in Spain, there was much talk about the progress of orchestras in that region. "After the financial downturn, when Spain was badly hit, everyone stopped talking about the orchestras there," he says, "but the progress continues and the playing standards are truly impressive."

The admiration is mutual. Oriol Roch, General manager of the Basque National Orchestra, says, "After having been following his career right from his first concerts in Europe, and after having seen Robert working with our orchestra, I realised that - apart from the fact that he's such a marvellous conductor and so musically gifted, he was the conductor the orchestras needed. We all see such an exciting future with Robert."

Early signs are that the chemistry works. Of Trevino's ecstatically-received performance of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with the orchestra earlier this year, Bachtrack wrote, "The American conductor maintained tension and majesty from start to finish, perfectly modulated...(and) masterfully played."

Trevino and the orchestra will work together on five different projects in the 17/18 season. He talks about a balance between core repertoire ("A Schumann cycle, Mahler, these things are important for any orchestra"), introducing works to the Basque region that haven't been played there before (music by Thomas Ades, John Adams, and he's considering pairing Shostakovich works with music from China) and getting involved with Basque-specific projects. The orchestra's rehearsal complex in Miramón, for instance, annually houses a week-long showcase of new music by Basque composers, some of which then make it into the next year's subscription season.

The orchestra has ambitious touring plans, first in Europe and, in the coming seasons, a hoped-for tour of the Americas. Recordings too are on the horizon. Enough to keep the players and their new Music Director more than busy. Which is just how he likes it. "People every so often ask me if I want to take a little break - no!" he laughs, "I've spent decades working so hard to get to work at a high level and I haven't even scratched the surface of what it is that I hope to discover and do. I have an amazing, busy life. And it's just gotten a lot better because I have a new, wonderful musical family."

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