Navarro, (Luis Antonio) García
Navarro, (Luis Antonio) García
Navarro, (Luis Antonio) García, Spanish conductor; b. Chiva, April 30, 1941. He was educated at the Valencia Cons., where he studied oboe; also took courses at the Madrid Cons. He then went to Vienna to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky, Karl Oesterreicher, and Reinhold Schmid; also took composition lessons with Alfred Uhi. In 1967 he won first prize at the conducting competition in Besançon. He was music director of the Valencia Sym. Orch. (1970–74); then was assoc. conductor of the Noordhollands Phil, in Haarlem (1974–78), and music director of Lisbon’s Portuguese Radio Sym. Orch. (1976–78) and National Opera at the São Carlos Theater (1980–82). In 1979 he made his debut as an opera conductor at London’s Covent Garden, and then appeared for the first time in the U.S. in 1980. He was principal guest conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Sym. Orch. (1984–87), the Vienna State Opera (1987–91), and the Tokyo Phil, (from 1992). He was Generalmusikdirektor of the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 1993 he was music director of the Barcelona Sym. Orch. In 1992 he became permanent guest conductor of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He served as music director and artistic director of the Teatro Real in Madrid from 1997.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis Mclntire