Juan José Olives Palenzuela
Founder
Juan José Olives, conductor (1951-2018). Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he studied music at the Conservatory of his hometown and later in Barcelona (Orchestral Conducting with A. Ros-Marbà and Composition with Josep Soler), at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna (Conducting with O. Suitner and Composition with F. Cerha), and at the orchestral conducting courses of the Sommer-Akademie in Salzburg with F. Leitner and D. Epstein.
He was the founder and principal conductor of the Palau de la Música Catalana Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted, among others, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Asturias Symphony Orchestra and the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra, the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Romanian Radio Orchestra, the Avignon-Provence Region Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona City Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra “Ciudad de Palma”, the Luxembourg Sinfonietta, the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, the Malaga City Chamber Orchestra, the Madrid Community Symphony Orchestra, the Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, the Bética Philharmonic of Seville, the Granada City Orchestra, the La Laguna Classical Orchestra, the Empordà Chamber Orchestra, and the Murcia Symphony Orchestra.
He has also directed different choral groups (Orfeó Catalá, Coral Sícoris de Lleida, RTVE Choir, “Amici Musicae” Choir of the Zaragoza Auditorium, Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana and Choir of the Lérida Auditorium) and, among others, he has participated in the Oviedo International Music Festival - accompanying Alicia de Larrocha in “Noches en los Jardines de España” by M. de Falla-, Granollers International Festival, Palamós Festival, Bucharest International Week of New Music, Catalan Contemporary Music Festival, Barcelona International Contemporary Music Festival, Alicante International Contemporary Music Festival, Torroella de Montgrí International Music Festival, “Les Nuits Pianistiques de Aix-enProvence”…
In 1995 he founded OCAZEnigma, the Chamber Orchestra of the Zaragoza Auditorium, a group of which he was the principal and artistic director from its founding until his death in 2018.
With the OCAZEnigma, he has given more than 200 concerts in Spain, Europe, and Latin America, and has recorded four albums dedicated to the works of Joaquim Homs, Angel Oliver Pina, Luciano Berio, and Paul Hindemith, as well as the CDs "Aragonese Composers" and Schubert's Mass in E-flat Major. With the Barcelona City Orchestra, he has recorded an album entirely dedicated to the orchestral works of Joaquim Homs. He has also made recordings for Radio Nacional de España and Catalunya Música.
With an extensive teaching career in different areas of music, he was, from 1989 to 2016, Professor of Orchestra Conducting at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Aragon.
As a composer, he has written works for solo instrument, chamber ensemble, and orchestra. His "Fantasy for Cello and Piano" won first prize at the JJ.MM. Composition Competition in Barcelona in 1982, and his "Variations on a Theme by A. Berg" for string orchestra, commissioned by the Barcelona International Music Festival in 1981, represented Spain at the Koussevitsky Prize in 1984.
Graduate with a Bachelor's and Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona with a Doctoral Thesis on the philosophy of music from the phenomenological perspective, through the thought of Ernest Ansermet.