Stability, Quality and Future Prospects

Stability, Quality and Future Prospects: These are the three maxims on which Oriol Roch has based his official presentation as the new General Manager of the Basque National Orchestra.

Today, at the Orchestra's Miramón venue, Oriol Roch was officially presented as the new General Manager of the Basque National Orchestra. Joxean Muñoz, the Basque Government Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, was entrusted with the presentation.

The new General Manager was firstly presented before the Orchestra, from whom he received a very warm welcome, and then he gave a press conference before an extensive array of representatives from the media, among which the new appointment has created much expectation. He said that he was very excited about the project, that leading the Orchestra was a wonderful opportunity, and that he hoped he would meet everybody's expectations. He talked about the Orchestra being a consolidated, serious project with immense possibilities. To this effect, although he praised the Orchestra's excellent position within the Basque Country and in Spain, he also emphasised his interest in bringing greater international scope to the Basque National Orchestra. As regards the repertoire, he confirmed his commitment to contemporary Basque music and stressed the importance of protecting the Basque heritage.

Joxean Muñoz based the selection of Oriol Roch as General Manager of the Basque National Orchestra on his commitment to the project for both the Orchestra and the country, as well as on his professional and formal nature. Roch will start work with the Orchestra on 25 August.

Oriol Roch Izard

He was the Technical Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia (RFG) from 2004 to the present. This ensemble is dependent on the Consortium of Santiago de Compostela, which in turn comes under the State, the Regional Government of Galicia and Santiago City Council. As part of his technical responsibility, he relaunched the RFG, strengthening its presence and acceptance in Galicia, as well as consolidating the same in the rest of Spain and abroad; he managed a season with top artists of international renown at a time of considerable budgetary cuts; along with his team, he consolidated a model of educational complicity in the RFG as a training centre for young musicians with the School of Higher Musical Studies.

Between 1990 and 2002 he was the Manager of the Teatre Lliure Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Josep Pons. His management of this Orchestra led it to achieve considerable national and international reach beyond its Barcelona concert season. He managed its transition to more important and prestigious projects, connecting different disciplines to give the project more prominence. He arranged an agreement with the publishing company Harmonia Mundi (France) for the release of two commercial records per year, which are still internationally successful.

He has previously worked on the Organising Committee of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and at the Barcelona Trade Fair, carrying out cultural promotion work and being in charge (on three occasions) of the symphony orchestra course organised by the Lerida choral society.

As far as training is concerned, apart from his post-graduate studies in Business Management (Ramon Llull University, Barcelona) and his command of languages (English and French), he also has a degree in Contemporary History from the University of Barcelona.