On June 4, 2000, Maestro David Gimenez conducted Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Sly in its first performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, a performance which marked his debut in the great opera house of his native city and the return of José Carreras, to the Liceu's stage after an absence of seven years. The opera was a great success, not only for the singers but also for Gimenez....

"The young conductor, David Giménez surprised the audience with a very lively and transparent reading of Wolf-Ferrari's score, achieving a great triumph." (Fernando Sans Riviére in La Razón)

"The ensemble numbers were shaped very well by David Gimenez, who drew out a very good sound from singers and orchestra alike." (María Rosa Capell in Mundo Clásico)

"The young conductor, David Giménez skillfully directed the chorus and orchestra and received much applause." (Luis Polanco in Ediciones Primera Plana)

"David Giménez, nephew of the famous tenor, made his debut in the theater of his home city, achieving a personal triumph and showing himself to be a conductor with clear ideas and an understanding of style to whom both the orchestra and chorus responded securely." (Pablo Meléndez-Haddad in Prensa Española)

David Ramirio Gimenez was born in Barcelona in 1964. The eldest son of José Carreras' sister, Maria, and her husband, Ramirio, he began his musical training at the Conservatorio del Liceo in Barcelona. He then joined the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, studying with Prof. Karl Osterreicher. He later studied for three years at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with the distinguished conductor, Sir Colin Davis. He made his professional debut as a conductor in 1994 in a concert given by José Carreras and since that time he has built a promising career which has focused primarily on conducting operas and operatic concerts.

He has performed at several prestigious summer music festivals such as the Ravinia Festival (USA), the Hampton Court Palace Festival (UK), and the Peralada Festival (Spain), and his professional commitments as guest conductor have literally taken him all over the world. He has conducted in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Scotland, Hungary, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil and Colombia. Among the orchestras he worked are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale de France, ORF Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Orchestra der Stadt Aachen, Dresdner Philharmonic, the NDR Orchester-Hannover, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Budapest State Opera House, the Orquestra del Gran Teatro del Liceo, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Throughout the past 6 years, he has continued to collaborate with Carreras in many memorable concerts, including the 1998 celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation, an open-air concert in Barcelona, attended by 60,000 people. He also regularly conducts concerts with artists such as Montserrat Caballe, Agnes Baltsa, Placido Domingo, Joan Pons, Ilona Tokody, Amanda Roocroft, Jaume Aragall, Isabel Rey, Dennis O'Neill, Bryn Terfel, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna. (Gimenez made his Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut on December 27,1999 conducting a concert with Alagna and Gheorghiu. Four months later he conducted a gala concert in Copenhagen to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Queen of Denmark with Alagna as soloist.)

Operatic productions now form an increasingly important part of Maestro Giménez's activities. Since making his operatic conducting debut in Carmen with the Stuttgart Opera, he has conducted performances of Aida, Werther, Fedora (Domingo and Baltsa; Carreras and Baltsa), The Merry Widow, Le Nozze di Figaro, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, Samson et Dalila, and Sly (Carreras). His future engagements include debuts in Russia, Greece and South Africa, conducting the Wiener Symphoniker in the Vienna Konzerthaus, productions of Fedora (Nice) and Aida (Frankfurt), and his debut in the Arena di Verona with Zeffirelli's new production of Carmen. For the seasons 2000 and 2001, David Gimenez will conduct the Pagliacci (Alagna and Gheorghiu), Gianni Schicchi, La Belle Hélène, La Bohème (Portland) and Faust (Baltimore).