23 Facts About James Conlon

James Conlon is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

James Conlon's mother, Angeline L Conlon, was a freelance writer.

James Conlon's father was an assistant to the New York City Commissioner of Labor in the Robert F Wagner administration.

James Conlon's siblings were not musically inclined, nor were his parents.

James Conlon asked for music lessons and became a treble in a children's chorus in an opera company in Queens.

James Conlon dreamed about being a tenor, then a baritone, and even wanted to sing the role of Carmen at one point.

James Conlon recalled that he had fallen in love with this opera at a young age, and had dreamed that it would be the first opera he would conduct.

James Conlon suggested to Juilliard's president, Peter Mennin, that Conlon should step in to conduct.

James Conlon received the conducting award of the American National Orchestral Association, and in 1974 became the youngest conductor engaged for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's subscription series.

James Conlon was named director of the Cincinnati May Festival in 1979, a position he retained until 2016.

James Conlon has appeared with many of the world's major opera companies, including Teatro alla Scala, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

James Conlon has held several major European posts, including principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Generalmusikdirektor of the City of Cologne, Germany, where he was simultaneously GMD of the Gurzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera, and principal conductor of the Paris National Opera, where his Paris tenure was the longest of any conductor there since 1939.

James Conlon served as music director of the Ravinia Festival from 2005 to 2015.

James Conlon conducted his first concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in October 2021.

James Conlon has highlighted works of Viktor Ullmann, Erwin Schulhoff, and Alexander von Zemlinsky thus far.

James Conlon has recorded extensively for the EMI, Erato, Capriccio and Sony Classical labels.

James Conlon made his first recording for Telarc of the world premiere of Franz Liszt's St Stanislaus oratorio, released in January 2004.

James Conlon's most recent recording is a CD of works by Bohuslav Martinu with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on Capriccio.

James Conlon has conducted the orchestra for Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute, a film version in English of Mozart's opera, reset during World War I, but otherwise very faithful to the original plot.

James Conlon adapted, arranged, and conducted the score for the 1995 film production of Madame Butterfly.

James Conlon married Jennifer Ringo, a soprano and vocal coach, on January 9,1987, at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

James Conlon is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and the University of Iowa.

James Conlon is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, producer and DP.