Music Director Enrique Arturo Diemecke brings an electrifying balance of passion, intellect and technique to his performances. Warmth, pulse, and spontaneity are all hallmarks of his conducting – conducting that has earned him an international reputation for performances that are riveting in their sweep and dynamism. In 2009, the Arts Council for Long Beach honored him with the coveted "Distinguished Artist Award". In the words of The New York Times, Diemecke is a conductor of “fierceness and authority.” A noted interpreter of the works of Mahler, Maestro Diemecke has been awarded a Mahler Society medal for his performances of the composer’s complete symphonies.
The 2011-2012 Symphony Classics season marks Maestro Diemecke’s eleventh season as Music Director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, his fifth season as Music Director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic of the famed Teatro Colon, and his twenty-second season as Music Director of the Flint Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 he was named Music Director of the Bogota Philharmonic, the premier orchestra in Columbia. Having completed his tenure of 20 years at the helm of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Maestro Diemecke returned to opera as he opened the 2007-2008 season leading a new production of Werther at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. His recording of Le Jongleur de Notre Dame with tenor Roberto Alagna was released by Deutsche Grammophon in August of 2009 and earned Maestro Diemecke his fourth Jean Fontaine Orpheus d’Or Gold Medal, the French equivalent of a Grammy.
An experienced conductor of opera, Maestro Diemecke served as Music Director of the Bellas Artes Opera of Mexico from 1984-1990. He led Opera Pacific’s 2005 production of I Pagliacci and Carmina Burana, and is a regular guest of the famed Teatro Zarzuela in Madrid.
Maestro Diemecke has collaborated with some of the finest artists of our time, including Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Ravi Shankar, Ivo Pogorelich, Midori, Shlomo Mintz, Henryk Szeryng, Placido Domingo, and Frederica von Stade. He is also frequently invited to festivals such as the Lincoln Center Summer Festival, the Hollywood Bowl Festival, Wolf Trap, Autumno Musicale a Como (Italy), Europalia (Brussels), World Fair Expo Sevilla (Spain), and Festival International Radio France.
Maestro Diemecke is also an accomplished composer and orchestral arranger. His Die-Sir-E was commissioned by the Radio France Festival for the World Cup Final Concert in France in 1998. His works Chacona a Chávez and Guitar Concerto have received many performances both in Europe and in the United States. Maestro Diemecke’s recording with the Flint Symphony Orchestra of the 1896 version of Mahler’s First Symphony (which includes the subsequently deleted “Blumine” movement) was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Born in Mexico, Enrique Diemecke comes from a German family of classical musicians. He began to play the violin at the age of six, studying for many years with the legendary violinist Henryk Szeryng. At the age of nine he added French horn, piano, and percussion to his studies. Diemecke attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and continued his studies with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School for Advanced Conductors on a scholarship granted by Madame Pierre Monteux.
“Major credit must go to Mr. Diemecke, who has a real flair for symphonic theater. No mere time beater, he molds a performance through subtle shifts in tempo and dynamics, and careful attention to orchestral performance.”
– The Dallas Morning News
Read an in-depth interview with the Maestro on his 10th Anniversary with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra
Listen to an in-depth discussion between Maestro Diemecke and Long Beach Post Cultural Agent Sander Wolff from January 2010:
