Juan David Molano – piano and conducting (Geneva, Switzerland)
About
Piano Professor at the Geneva Conservatory of Music;
Principal conductor of the Orchestra Ribaupierre in Vevey, Switzerland;
Principal conductor of the Edward Said Conservatory of Music, Palestina.
Born in Manizales, Colombia, Juan David Molano began his piano studies at the age of nine with his aunt Olga González, a former assistant of the great italian pedagogue Emilio Paracchini. He continues his studies in Bogota with Maestro Karol Bermudez and win several first prizes in national competitions, specially the Radio HJCK Piano Competition and the UIS Piano Competition. Juan David Molano received a scholarship from the Fondation Mazda in Colombia to finance his studies in Switzerland at the Musik-Akademie der Stadt Basel as pupil of the Austrian pianist Peter Efler. Postgraduate studies for piano followed in the Swiss music conservatories of Fribourg, Geneva and Bern, where he obtained a Soloist Diploma in the class of Tomasz Herbut.
He has given numerous piano recitals and collaborated with numerous renowned musicians such as Edicson Ruiz (Double bass), Alexis Cárdenas (violin), Ricardo Castro (piano), Michel Bellavance (flute), Abel Carlevaro (guitar),Philippe Savoy (Saxophone) and Hanchao Jiang (saxophone). He has been invited to play as a soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia at the Teatro Colon in Bogota, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Orquesta Sinfonica de Caldas, Berner Symphonie Orchester, playing under the baton of renowned maestros as Irwin Hoffman, Federico García Vigil and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
In 2006 Juan David accepted a position as piano teacher at the Geneva Conservatory of Music. The same year he started leading an important project of cultural development in his hometown Manizales in Colombia, as Artistic Director of the international chamber music series organised by the National University, a position he has held during 6 years, organizing over 50 concerts with prominent musicians from all over the world.
Juan David Molano studied conducting at the Lausanne Conservatory of Music in the class of Hervé Klopfenstein and Aurélien Zielinski and then at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London under the guidance of Sian Edwards and Colin Metters for orchestral conducting and Patrick Russill for choral conducting.
He participated in master classes of major personalities like Bruno Aprea (opera), Colin Metters, Mark Shanahan (opera), Martyn Brabbins, Arturo Tamayo and David Zinman having the opportunity to conduct the Russian National Orchestra and the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra, The Joven Orquesta de Galicia, among others.
Principal conductor of the Edward Said Conservatory of Music since 2011, he has led different projects with the ESNCM Orchestra such as Concert for life and peace in December 2011 (broadcast by the RAI3) and Carmen (opera excerpts with international soloists and the celebrated Swiss choir St. Michel).
He has recently conducted the Kharkov Filarmonia (Ucrania), Orquesta Sinfónica de Caldas (Colombia), the ESNCM Orchestras (Palestine), Joven Orquesta de Galicia (España) and the Orchestra of the University of Arts in London.
Passionated with the opera world he has conducted and arranged for small chamber ensemble Il Segreto di Susanna by E. Wolf-Ferrari (Edited by Josef Weinberger in London), Rita by Donizzetti and El Gato con Botas by X. Montsalvatge .
He has recently received the British Gordon Foundation Award and the Henry Wood Scholarship at Royal Academy of Music in London.
Juan David Molano is currently a piano professor at the Geneva Music Conservatory (Switzerland) and is also the principal conductor of the orchestras at the Edward Said Conservatory of Palestine.
Since February 2015 he is the principal conductor of the Orchestra Ribaupierre in Vevey, Switzerland