The Sinfonietta Dachau has a new conductor. And what a. After the unexpected death of orchestra founder Victor Bolarinwa, Jesús Ortega Martínez takes over the task. The 27-year-old artist was born in the southern Spanish region of Murcia. He began his path to classical music with the guitar, and via piano, singing and chamber music he studied classical music, which he completed at the Alicante Conservatory. Most recently, he lived in Helsinki for five years and studied conducting at the renowned Sibelius Academy. There the British star conductor Roger Norrington was one of his teachers. “I had the chance to rehearse with wonderful orchestras and choirs,” says the music enthusiast, who immediately follows with the finest understatement: “I’m a very young conductor, which has advantages and disadvantages: I have a lot of energy on the one hand, but I still have it on the other not that much experience.”
It is no coincidence that he ended up in Munich just three weeks ago, where he is studying orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. Born in the south, educated in the north, he has long dreamed of working as a musician in Germany. For him, German is the language of music, he learned it in Finland. His dream is to one day be able to read his favorite books, Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” and Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” in the original, he says in English. He conducts the rehearsals of the Sinfonietta in German, but as Ortega reveals with a wink: “The best conductors speak little.” The musicians of the Sinfonietta were obviously happy to play together again, says Ortega, who has now conducted three rehearsals. “These musicians are all so motivated, that would inspire any conductor,” he enthuses.
Succeeding Victor Bolarinwa is a tall order
Once a week he rehearses for two to three hours in Dachau, so far it has been pure joy for him. He wants a “radiant, enthusiastic performance in which the music takes center stage.” At the same time, he is rehearsing for a contemporary opera at the university and a concert in Augsburg. “It’s all a bit crazy right now,” he says. You can feel how strict he can be with himself: “I don’t consider myself the most talented musician, but I work very hard and I always prepare thoroughly,” says Ortega, who has won numerous music awards for his guitar playing.
He has not yet been able to arrange the program for the autumn concert himself, but he likes it very much: in his opinion, the “three greatest composers of all time” are on the program with Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. He particularly likes Beethoven’s overture to the ballet “The Creatures of Prometheus” op. 43, which is “so tragic, so wonderful, pure joy”. Referring to the mythological figure of Prometheus, who brought fire to mankind and was punished by Zeus for it, Ortega asks, “Aren’t we all sons of Prometheus?” In addition, the young Spaniard thinks that this musical prelude is a “very good start for a concert and at the same time a monument to Victor Bolarinwa”. Unfortunately he didn’t get to know his predecessor personally, but he felt how the musicians loved him. “He is in the memory of this orchestra,” says Ortega, he feels a great responsibility and duty to succeed Bolarinwa.
Bolarinwa died in July at the age of 83. The Nigerian founder, chief conductor and artistic director of the Sinfonietta had succeeded in founding a classical symphony orchestra in Dachau that was able to last. Bolarinwa had recognized that there were enough talented amateur and professional musicians living here who might be willing to rehearse and play in a Dachau orchestra alongside their professional work. Under Bolarinwa’s direction, the Sinfonietta Dachau became a recognized orchestra for classical music.
The autumn concert conducted by Jesús Ortega Martínez with works by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart is still partly based on the program selection by Victor Bolarinwa and will take place on Saturday, October 22nd at 7 p.m. in the Dachau Palace Hall.