Andrés Salado, new principal conductor of the "miracle of Vallés"

Barcelona"The Vallès Symphony Orchestra is a miracle," says Andrés Salado (Madrid, 1983), who will take up his post as principal conductor in September. With his addition, the Vallès Symphony Orchestra (OSV) will also debut an artistic structure to "cope with the growing activity of the orchestra," as explained by the president of the OSV, Jordi Cos. For now, the Vallès-based ensemble gives around 140 concerts a year, including the Fundació Òpera Catalunya season, and has 45 musicians on staff and sufficient maneuverability to undertake projects that require more musicians, such as the Symphony No. 1 by Mahler, which Salado himself will conduct this week: on Friday, March 28 at the Teatro la Farándula in Sabadell, on Saturday, March 29 at the Palau de la Música, and on Sunday, March 30 at LaFact Cultural in Terrassa. "Andrés will continue to contribute to the growth of the orchestra," says Cos.

Salado will work in coordination with Xavier Puig, who has been the principal conductor since 2018 and will now be resident conductor. Puig, incidentally, will combine this responsibility as resident with the principal conductorship of the Orfeó Català starting in September. For practical purposes, Salado will carry out fourteen weeks of annual activity with the OSV and Puig, according to Cos, "will look after the artistic core." "My role is partly conducting, because we're conductors and we're hooked on the stage like a cocaine addict on cocaine, but it's also partly managing," explains Puig, who will take over as principal conductor of the Orfeó Català in September. Puig will also oversee the implementation of the OSV's artistic improvement plan, a miracle in several ways: due to its structure (the orchestra is a cooperative) and the volume and variety of its activity. "It's also a miracle that two conductors understand each other, in such a competitive world," says Salado.

Andrés Salado has been principal and artistic director of the Extremadura Orchestra since 2021; and since February, he has conducted the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra. His relationship with the OSV began in 2020. Therefore, he is familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the Vallesan orchestra, which he defines as "a Gallic village in the world of music," due to the way it covers the country and its commitment to its musical talent. "I believe in a fresh profession, one that believes in big names and local talent," says Salado, an admirer of Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, "good people who seem like an endangered species today."

Regarding the work he wants to develop with the OSV, always "committed to sound, repertoire, and quality," the goal is "to grow by growing," attentive to generational change and with "an obsession." "My main obsession is sound. I like to build from sound. I want the OSV, which is such an eclectic orchestra that it can give concerts of soundtracks as quickly as waltzes or great symphonies, to have an identity based on sound," he continues.