Esteemed conductor and pianist Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez was named Artistic Director of Musica Viva NY and Director of Music of the historic Unitarian Church of All Souls in Manhattan in 2015. He is also Co-Founder of the New Orchestra of Washington and Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival. He has earned accolades from The Washington Post as a conductor “with the incisive clarity of someone born to the idiom,” as well as praise from The New York Times for leading “a stirring performance” of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. At a concert commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the WWI Armistice (featuring the world premiere of Joseph Turrin’s cantata And Crimson Rose Once Again Be Fair) Oberon’s Grove wrote: “Maestro Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez drew rich, warm sounds from the musicians” in “a beautiful and deeply moving program.” He is featured in El mundo en las manos/Creadores mexicanos en el extranjero (The World in Their Hands/Creative Mexicans Abroad), a book by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs honoring Mexican nationals who are leading figures in diverse artistic fields. He is the recipient of a 2016 Shenandoah Conservatory Alumni of Excellence Award for his exemplary contribution to his profession, national level of prominence, and exceptional integrity. He resides in New York City and Washington, D.C.
In 2016, during its 40th anniversary season, Hernandez-Valdez was named the third Artistic Director of the Victoria Bach Festival in Texas. As Mike Greenberg wrote in Classical Voice America: “A big question mark hung over the venerable Victoria Bach Festival two years ago when the brilliant Craig Hella Johnson, its artistic director since 1992, decided to give up the post…Johnson’s successor has replaced the question mark with an exclamation point — perhaps more appropriately, given his Spanish name and Mexican provenance, two exclamation points: ¡Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez!”…“The results,” Greenberg continued, “were astonishing.”
Since taking the helm at Musica Viva NY, described recently by The New York Times as “an excellent chorus,” Hernandez-Valdez has presented an exceptionally broad repertoire in each of the choir’s seasons, focusing on transformative interpretations to engage and inspire the audience, and exploring the acoustical limits of the All Souls Church sanctuary. Founded in 1977, the ensemble has a longstanding tradition of top-caliber performances, innovative programming, and strong dedication to the commissioning of new works. Its alumni include Renée Fleming and Samuel Ramey.
As the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the New Orchestra of Washington, a chamber orchestra that “has constituted itself in the forefront of this smaller-is-better movement” (The Washington Post), Hernandez-Valdez has led two performances for Trinity Wall Street’s concert series: the New York premiere of Julian Wachner’s Chamber Symphony (a New Orchestra of Washington commission), and Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, which the ensemble also recorded. In October of 2017, the New Orchestra of Washington released Bespoke, a new CD featuring works by Joel Friedman, Elena Ruehr, and Julian Wachner that were tailor-made for the innovative Washington D.C. based ensemble.
His guest conducting engagements include appearances at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Degollado Theatre in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he led the Jalisco Philharmonic. As a pianist, Hernandez-Valdez performed for the 2013 Britten100 festival in New York, organized by the Britten-Pears Foundation to honor the 100th anniversary of the titular composer’s birth. As a composer and conductor, he helmed the premiere of his own composition, “The Imaginary City,” a cantata inspired by the life of Ramzi Aburedwan, a violist who has opened schools throughout Palestine to teach music to underprivileged children. He also arranged and premiered the chamber orchestra version of “A Song of Nature” by Seymour Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein, the subject of Ethan Hawke’s 2014 documentary film, “Seymour: An Introduction,” is one of Hernandez-Valdez’s most influential teachers and mentors.