The Spanish organist Juan de la Rubia is on tour in Europe. For the time being, he has played already at Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (April 18th), Saint-Sulpice Church in Paris (April 22nd) and Svetlanov Hall in the Moscow International Performing Arts Center (April 26th). This tour will culminate next May 1st at the Palau de la Musica Catalana, playing a concert together with Freiburger Barockorchester and Matthias Goerne.
A native of La Vall d’Uixó (Castelló, Spain), organist Juan de la Rubia has performed on the principal stages of Europe, as well as in Latin America and Asia, to great acclaim from public and critics alike. In recent years, his concert activity has been non-stop, performing in over twenty countries in concert halls such as the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the cathedral in Cologne and the Mariinsky Theatre and Philharmonia in St. Petersburg.
He has appeared as a soloist with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, interpreting Händel organ concertos and Bach cantatas, and as continuo and/or director of various instrumental and vocal ensembles for early music.
The press has said of him: “De la Rubia combines naturalness and spontaneity, which he exercises with exquisite technique” (Jorge de Persia, La Vanguardia, 2015); “Juan de la Rubia, with the mentality of a conductor, plays with the thousands of shades offered by a grand instrument such as the organ of the Palau” (Javier Pérez Senz, El País, 2015); “De la Rubia, who recently delighted the same Palau with a sensational concert accompanied by no less than the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, put into practice his genius as an improviser” (Jacobo Zabalo, Revista Musical Catalana, 2015).
Juan de la Rubia has performed with several orchestras, such as Youth National Orchestra of Catalunya, Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Orquesta Camerata Madrid, Orquesta de la Comunitat Valenciana, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Orquesta de cuerdas de Bogotá and la Freiburger Barockorchester. Thus, he has worked with conductors such as Víctor Pablo Pérez, Kazushi Ono, Salvador Mas, Tomás Netopil and Henrie Adams, among others. He has collaborated with soloists such as Asier Polo, Raquel Lojendio and Philippe Jarousky, with whom he record the CD “Sacred Cantantes” (Erato, 2016).
After beginning his musical studies with his father and Ricardo Pitarch, he developed as an organist and pianist in Valencia, Barcelona, Berlin and Toulouse, garnering five Extraordinary Prizes in different specialties. Among his teachers are Óscar Candendo, Wolfgang Seifen, Michel Bouvard and Montserrat Torrent, who were a great support throughout his studies. He also took master classes from, among others, Olivier Latry and Ton Koopman.
He is currently a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) and organist of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. In 2012, he was named a member of the Catalan Royal Academy of Fine Arts of St. Jordi.
Photo: Iwan Baan
