Roberto González-Monjas

Conductor, Violin

Artist in Residence (Designate) – Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon

Biography

Highly sought-after as a violinist and play-director, Roberto González-Monjas is rapidly making a mark as a conductor on the international scene. A natural musical leader with strong vision and clarity, Roberto possess a unique mixture of remarkable personal charisma, an abundance of energy, enthusiasm and fierce intelligence.

Roberto’s eclectic concert diary includes regular conducting, play-directing and soloist engagements with orchestras such as the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra in London, Orchestre de l’Opera National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, New World Symphony in Miami and Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra. He frequently collaborates with Ian Bostridge, Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen, Alexander Lonquich, Lisa Batiashvili, Fazil Say, Reinhard Goebel, Thomas Quasthoff, András Schiff and Kit Armstrong.

In the current and future seasons, Roberto undertakes a variety of play-direct, chamber music and conducting projects with the Musikkollegium Winterthur including a tour of Asia with the clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer. He also embarks on a European tour with the Iberacademy Orchestra and tenor Rolando Villazón, with concerts at the Lucerne Easter Festival and the Mozarteum Stiftung in Salzburg. Future guest conducting engagements include debuts with Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and returns to Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orquesta Joven de la Sinfónica de Galicia and Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon. His close collaboration with composer Richard Dubugnon has resulted in a new Violin Concerto, which Roberto will premiere in May 2018.

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IMG Artists Signs Conductor & Violinist Roberto González-Monjas for General Management

Mar 5, 2018

IMG Artists welcomes conductor and violinist, Roberto González-Monjas, to its roster for General Management. Roberto will be managed by Nicholas Mathias and Elena Kostova out of the company’s London offices. “I feel inexplicably lucky to work alongside Elena Kostova...

Reviews

“Roberto González-Monjas did it, because he is in a great moment of artistic maturity that allows him to mold a brutal “physical” part (third movement, for example) that also requires absolute devotion to transmit that urban and street paroxysm. The high technical qualities of González-Monjas and especially his compromised attitude are fundamental in this concert, also regarding the delicacy of the Adieu, the care at the time of sewing harmonics and understanding with an orchestral part that has much to express.”

Samuel González Casado

Mundo Clasico

“In all it’s 64 minutes’ worth of music, saved from outstaying its welcome by Mozart’s ever-questing ear for an effect, among the most piquant perhaps being the pizzicato passage towards the end of the Andante. It’s played admirably here, under the direction of the well-travelled Roberto González-Monjas”

David Threasher

Gramophone

More Reviews

“He is the comet at the Winterthur classical sky: Roberto Gonzalez-Monjas…The famous Haffner Serenade KV 250 by Mozart and the Serenade op. 1 by Othmar Schoeck are included, with Gonzalez-Monjas acting as both conductor and solo violinist. It is amazing how easy and accident-proof the orchestra is now able to play… Mozart has composed movements two to four as a veritable violin concerto full of songfulness and virtuosity, a feast for the violinist Gonzalez-Monjas. With his filigree style and his wonderfully singing violin sound, he dominates the Serenade over long distances…” – Schewizer Musikzeitung, Verena Naegele, July 2018 (CD review)

“Under the baton of the first concertmaster Roberto González-Monjas, the orchestra played with a sonorous tone, and the Ensemble Corund sang with naturally simple vocals. In addition, Gonzalez Monjas built the special Requiem form very organic. The dramaturgy was poignant, the short, violent crescendos unfolding with powerful force.” – Der Landbote, Sibylle Ehrismann, March 2018

“González-Monjas was above all a versatile interpreter, capable of making the most of the tensions that occur in the work [Salonen Violin Concerto ] and recreate in moments of calm. …The soloist left an unbeatable tympanic atmosphere in Pulse I, while in Pulse II it seemed to take the spectator…to an atmosphere of great energy. When he arrived at Adieu, González-Monjas, achieved a melancholy air, without missing the powerful contrasts well provided by the orchestra, and let the sound fade from the acute. The violinist was inexhaustible, in a work that gives no respite, when it comes to delving into the resources that he provided to make them patent. “ – Agustín Achúcarro, Codalario.com, 19 February 2018

“At times when the orchestra launches in full sail, knows how to dose more collected, such as the evocation of the hero’s companion, whose typically feminine intemperance, the fickleness (so feared by men in a woman), are represented by a violin solo with a virtuosistically voluble character, beautifully interpreted by Roberto González-Monjas.” – Stefano Ceccarelli, L’Ape musicale, 25 January 2018

“With verve, verve and enthusiasm as well as excellent technical skills, the instrumentalists present a stringent, sophisticated interpretation of the two works…Roberto Gonzales-Monjas…serves his soli with technically playful lightness and classical interpretation.” – Pizzicato, October 2017