Biography
Highly sought-after as a conductor and violinist, Roberto González-Monjas is rapidly making a mark 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 is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of Dalasinfoniettan and Chief Conductor Designate of Musikkollegium Winterthur (from 2021/22). The recent appointment in Winterthur is a recognition of Roberto’s longstanding and fruitful collaboration with the orchestra as an eclectic musician, featuring as a conductor, play-director, chamber musician and soloist. Most recently Roberto and the Musikkollegium Winterthur undertook a tour of Asia with the clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer. As a passionate champion of the music of living composers, Roberto’s close association with composer Richard Dubugnon has resulted in a new Violin Concerto, which Roberto premiered in May 2018 with the Musikkollegium Winterthur.
Recent guest conducting debuts which led to immediate re-invitations and significant future debuts include collaborations with Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Camerata Salzburg, Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre national d’Île de France, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon, Malaysian Philharmonic and Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa among many others.
The current season sees Roberto as a frequent collaborator of the Berliner Barock Solisten with whom, under the baton of Reinhard Goebel, he features on an extensive European tour as a soloist on violin and viola performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. This tour will take Roberto to some of Europe’s most prestigious venues including Victoria Hall in Geneva, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and Die Glocke in Bremen among others. Together they will also appear at the Lucerne and Grafenegg Festivals during the summer Season.
Read moreRecent News
Watch Roberto González-Monjas’ Debut with Orchestre national d’Île-de-France on 13 February
Roberto González-Monjas will make his debut with Orchestre national d'Île-de-France on Friday, 5th February. He will both conduct the orchestra and perform as the evening’s soloist on Hartmann’s Concerto Funèbre pour Violin. The programme also includes Kraus’...
Roberto González-Monjas Makes Belgian National Orchestra Debut on 25 – 27 September
Roberto González-Monjas will make his debut, and Belgian conducting debut, with the Belgian National Orchestra in five concerts between 25 – 27 September. He will conduct Robert Schumann’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 129, with soloist Victor...
Roberto González-Monjas Named Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur
Roberto González-Monjas is named Chief Conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur. He will begin his initial 4-year tenure from the 2021/22 season. Founded in 1629 as a music society, the Musikkollegium Winterthur became a professional orchestra in 1875. The orchestra...
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.”
“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”
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“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
Featured Discography
Gallery – Conductor
Gallery – Violinist
Contact
Nicholas Mathias - General Management
nmathias@imgartists.com
+44 (0) 20 7957 5800
Jan Masera - Associate Artist Manager
jmasera@imgartists.com
+44 (0)20 7957 5838