Interview
When and where was your first concert with the MCO?
My first concert with the MCO was in 2004, on a tour to Venezuela and Cuba, with Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel. I remember it being one of the best experiences of my life.
What’s the best thing about playing with the MCO?
It's always amazing to play with the MCO. This is a chamber orchestra that means sharing and making music together with a lot of emotions. You always enjoy being with your colleagues.
What is your most memorable moment with the orchestra?
I can't say which concert was the best or the most memorable, but if I had to choose one, maybe I would choose the first concert (on the 2004 tour to Venezuela and Cuba) and also my first concert at the Lucerne Festival, in 2005 with Daniel Harding.
Can you tell us something about your instrument?
I started to play the clarinet when I was 8 years old, so I think now it has become a part of my body. I really enjoy it and especially playing it in an orchestra because I think it represents the colour of the woodwinds, and we can blend the sound very easily with other instruments.
What is the most difficult aspect of your job?
For me, the most difficult aspect is preparing the music: you have to know everything about the programme very well. Also, when you go in tour, you have to be ready and fresh every time to do and to give all your best.
Biography
Vicente Alberola is Principal Conductor of Orquesta Sinfónica Gurska de Madrid, Guest Conductor of the Opera of Perm and Music Director of Orquestra Sinfónica Vigo 430. He is also Principal Clarinet of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Les Dissonances.
Vicente Alberola studied with Walter Boeykens at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Belgium. At the same time, he took lessons with George Pieterson (of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) and Larry Combs (of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). For more than twenty years, Vicente Alberola was Principal Clarinet of the opera orchestras in Madrid and Galicia. In the past decade, he has been guest principal clarinet with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Les Dissonances and MMCK Tokyo Orchestra. With these groups, he has had the opportunity to perform the great symphonic repertoire under the batons of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert and Nicolas Luisotti.
In 1996, Vicente Alberola’s vocation as conductor began with Orquesta Joven de la Sinfónica de Galicia, of which he would be Artistic Director for eight years. In 2003, he was appointed Conductor of Joven Orquesta de la Ópera de Madrid; in 2007, he became Conductor of Joven Orquesta de Soria.
Vicente Alberola has conducted the following operas with Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid in Madrid’s Teatro Real: Donizetti’s Rita, Pucchini’s La Bohème, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Stravinsky’s Persephone, Montsalvatge’s El Gato con botas, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Verdi’s Macbeth. Most recently, he conducted performances of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore. At the same time, he has led symphonic concerts with Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid in the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, Opera Orchestra of Perm, Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Filarmónica de Valladolid, MMCK Tokyo and MusicaAeterna.