“The Ulster Orchestra’s music director Rafael Payare has been appointed to the same position with the San Diego Symphony,” writes Alf McCreary in Thursday’s (2/22) Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland). “Payare [will conduct] the San Diego regularly while working out his contract in Belfast, which ends in June 2019. He will make his debut on the podium with the San Diego Symphony in the 2019-20 season…. Ulster Orchestra chief executive Richard Wigley said: ‘We are naturally disappointed to be losing Rafael … while also celebrating his extraordinary contribution to the musical life of Northern Ireland.’ … Payare’s departure will be seen as a major loss to the orchestra, which has improved out of all recognition since he took over in 2014…. The Ulster Orchestra has faced severe financial problems and nearly folded. A rescue campaign … was successful.… Born in 1980 in Venezuela, Payare made his name as principal horn of the famous Simon Bolivar Orchestra in his homeland, which he later conducted…. Payare will conduct the orchestra tomorrow evening in the Ulster Hall, when there will be a world premiere of Giancarlo Castro’s Trumpet Concerto played by Pacho Flores, one of Payare’s colleagues in the Simon Bolivar.”
Posted February 23, 2018
