Pedro Halffter Caro, born in Madrid in 1971, is Artistic Director of Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza, and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria.

He has conducted many of the leading orchestras in the world, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, New Japan Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, as well as most of the orchestras in Spain, at such major international venues as the Vienna Musikverein, Konzerthaus Berlin, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Tokyo’s Opera City Concert Hall and the Shanghai Concert Hall.

In the season 2014/15, Pedro Halffter conducted Die schweigsame Frau by Richard Strauss at the Bavarian State Opera as well as during Munich’s Opera Festival in summer 2015. He appeared with the Orchestre National Montpellier, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg as well as with the Antonio Symphony Orchestra in Texas.

In addition to his obligations in Sevilla and Gran Canaria, highlights of the season 2015/16 will lead him to Amsterdam (Victor Ullmann “The Emperor of Atlantis”), Jerusalem (with Jerusalem Sympphony Orchestra), St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra), Nürnberg (Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg) as well as Madrid (Teatro Real).

Pedro Halffter studied at the prestigious Schule Schloss Salem in Germany and continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna (conducting) and in New York (composition). Between 2001 and 2004 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, as well as holding the position of Principal Conductor of the Bayreuth Festival Youth Orchestra in 2002 and 2003.

Considered one of the best conductors of symphonic repertoire of his generation, he has also a successful career as opera conductor with main focus on German repertoire. As Pedro Halffter belongs to the renowned Spanish-German composer saga, it is one of his major concerns to get spanish audience inspired by works for example of Wagner, Strauss, Schreker and Zemlinksky.

One highlight was certainly his direction of the opera Tannhäuser, in a new production by Katharina Wagner.

Pedro Halffter has composed more than twenty works. These have been premiered by – among others - the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain, at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and the Dortmund Philharmonie.

Particularly noteworthy among his recordings are that of Cristóbal Halffter’s Don Quijote for Glossa, albums devoted to Falla and Korngold for Warner Music, and to Schoenberg, Schreker and Michael Daugherty for Warner Classics & Jazz (with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal).

Pedro Halffter is a member of Seville’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts of St Isabella of Hungary (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría).