James Conlon

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Music Education (2019-2020)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Classical Music and Music Education is one of the musical highlights in the University of Oxford’s calendar. It holds a breadth of events – ranging from lectures and symposia to recitals and masterclasses – that make accessible some of the world’s leading performers.

James Conlon, is the HUMANITAS Visiting Professor in Voice and Classical Music 2019-20, 2-4 March thanks to the generous support of the Mercedes T. Bass Charitable Corporation.

Mr Conlon is one of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974 and is one of classical music’s most recognized interpreters.

He is Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera (since 2006) and Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (since 2016), where he is the first American to hold the position since the orchestra was founded in 1931.
He is also an enthusiastic advocate of public scholarship and cultural institutions as forums for the exchange of ideas and inquiry into the role music plays in our shared humanity and civic life.

The talk – ‘Recovering a Lost Heritage’ focused on his work in calling attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime. Mr Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music throughout Europe and North America. His work on behalf of suppressed composers led to the creation of The OREL Foundation, an invaluable resource on the topic for music lovers, students, musicians, and scholars, and the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School.