Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Alvaro Cassuto
Biographie Royal Scottish National Orchestra & Alvaro Cassuto
Álvaro Cassuto - conductor
Álvaro Cassuto is Portugal’s foremost conductor. He has been Music Director of the Portuguese National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the University of California Symphony Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of New York, the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa, the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Raanana Symphony Orchestra, the Algarve Orchestra, and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra.
Born in Porto, he studied in Lisbon, and after establishing himself as one of the most promising young composers of the avant-garde of the early 1960s, he went on to study conducting with Herbert van Karajan in Berlin. After graduating in Law from the University of Lisbon in 1964, he obtained his conducting degree in Vienna.
A recipient of the Koussevitzky Prize among many other honours, he has enjoyed a career of high international acclaim.
He has been a frequent guest of many leading orchestras, including the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and dozens of others across the world.
In 2009, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his career, the President of Portugal bestowed on him the commendation of Grand Officer of the Military Order of Santiago de Espada.
He has an extensive discography with a variety of orchestras and for different labels, among which a highly successful ongoing series for Naxos, dedicated to some of Portugal’s most important composers.
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is one of Europe’s leading symphony orchestras. Formed in 1891 as the Scottish Orchestra, the company became the Scottish National Orchestra in 1950, and was awarded Royal Patronage in 1991. Throughout its proud history, the orchestra has played an important part in Scotland’s musical life, including performing at the opening ceremony of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004. Many renowned conductors have contributed to its success, including Walter Susskind, Sir Alexander Gibson, Bryden Thomson, Conductor Laureate Neeme Järvi, Conductor Emeritus Walter Weller and Conductor Emeritus Alexander Lazarev. Stéphane Denève, who became Music Director in September 2005, concludes his tenure at the end of the 2011-12 Season. This partnership has enjoyed great acclaim, at home and abroad, and has brought one of the most successful periods in the organisation’s recent history. British-Canadian conductor Peter Oundjian will take over as RSNO Music Director in September 2012. The orchestra has a worldwide reputation for the quality of its recordings and has been nominated for eight GRAMMY® awards in the last eight years. Over 200 releases are available, including the complete symphonies of Sibelius (Gibson), Prokofiev (Järvi), Nielsen and Martinů (Thomson).
