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JAMES DEMSTER (Conductor and Music Director) JAMES DEMSTER has appeared as conductor for tenor Plácido Domingo with the zarzuela company originally founded by his parents, the Compañía Mexicana de Zarzuela Domingo-Embil, in successful performances including featured star Rolando Villazón at the 10,000-seat National Auditorium in Mexico City, site also for four sold-out symphonic concerts with the Spanish star Miguel Bosé. Throughout his nearly twenty-five-year residence in Mexico, he has occupied various musical posts such as vocal coach for the National Opera Company of Bellas Artes, conductor of the Chorus of the Theater of Bellas Artes, conductor of the twenty-four voice chamber choir Solistas Ensamble del INBA, artistic director of the Madrigal Choir of Bellas Artes for five years and professor of the Superior School of Music of Bellas Artes. Integrating the activities of vocal coach, orchestral conductor, pianist and professor, he has maintained a relationship with SIVAM (Sociedad Internacional de Valores de Arte Mexicano) with the auspices of its president, Pepita Serrano. Thanks to a special scholarship given by Ramón Vargas, for three years James was the teacher of María Alejandres, first-prize winner in both opera and zarzuela categories in the OPERALIA, 2008 Vocal Competition. James was chosen to conduct Mozart’s Great C-minor Mass, K. 427 for the reopening of the largest cathedral in the Americas, the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City with soloists Olivia Gorra, Encarnación Vázquez, Leonardo Villeda and Jesús Suaste and then only to share the conductor’s podium with Plácido Domingo and the Mexico City Philharmonic for the reopening of the historic Teatro de la Ciudad. In October 2008, when this theater reclaimed its original name of TEATRO ESPERANZA IRIS, James Demster once again conducted the Mexico City Philharmonic in a review of operetta and zarzuela called UN IRIS DE ESPERANZA with Elsa Aguirre, Héctor Bonilla, Hernán del Riego, seven divas, male chorus, large chorus and Spanish ballet. James Demster is co-composer and conductor of the magical opera CHAMÁNIKA conceived by Olivia Gorra in a multi-disciplinary production. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude with a double major in oboe (Patricia Stenberg) and piano (Gary Wolf) at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and then the Master of Music degree in piano performance at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His conducting teacher at Tanglewood was the renowned Gustav Meier. Mr. Demster has maintained an intense activity as conductor and pianist with artists such as Plácido Domingo, Gilda Cruz Romo, Sherrill Milnes, Ramón Vargas, Olivia Gorra, Verónica Villarroel, Encarnación Vázquez, María Luisa Tamez, Luis Girón May, Fernando de la Mora, Rolando Villazón and Alfredo Portilla. On occasion he has participated in the musical preparation of concerts and master classes with Renata Scotto, Eva Marton, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, June Anderson, Dimitri Hvorostovsky and many more. In the summer of 2005 he participated as pianist for Olivia Gorra in the Rolex-sponsored master classes given by Jessye Norman at the Musical Academy of Villecroze in Provence. Among the orchestras he has conducted are the Camerata of the Americas; the Symphonic Orchestra of the Americas; the Mexico City Philharmonic; the Orchestra of the Theater of Bellas Artes; the Chamber Orchestra of Bellas Artes; the Carlos Chávez Orchestra; the Setagaya Philharmonic of Tokyo; the Symphonic Orchestra of the Prefecture of Mie in Japan; the Chiba-ken Youth Orchestra; Solistas México-Japón; the principal orchestras of Xalapa, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Mérida, Oaxaca, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Acapulco and Culiacán; various orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Guatemala and El Salvador; and many orchestral groups in New York and Florida. As pianist James Demster recorded with Olivia Gorra the CD entitled PECADORA with songs of Agustín Lara in arrangements by José de la Herrán/Rafael Barrio and the group Tlen Huicani. The Mexican National Association of Critics of Theater and Music awarded the prize “Best Recording of the Year” to the two-volume set Canciones de Luna” recorded “a piano” with mezzo-soprano Encarnación Vázquez. As conductor he recorded with Tania Libertad a platinum CD of opera arias entitled ¿Y PORQUÉ NO? that sold over 800,000 copies, as well as ÚNICA, a disk of opera arias with Olivia Gorra and the Orchestra of the Americas. Recently released is a collaboration with Olivia Gorra in the album MOVIENDO EL AGUA, showing the vocal flexibility and stylistic inspiration of this Mexican soprano. James Demster is Musical Director of the Harmonia Opera Company of New York, with whom he has conducted the premieres of more than 35 Japanese operas. In 2006 he conducted the American premiere of KUROFUNE, (THE BLACK SHIPS) at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. For the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato he presented the Japanese masterpiece YUZURU with both Japanese and Mexican casts with the Yucatán Symphony Orchestra of Mérida, going on in 2008 to present the same opera with a Mexican cast for eight consecutive performances in Japan, the first time in history that a foreign cast has sung a Japanese opera in Japanese in Japan. With magnificent grace and powerful communication of the friendship between Japan and Mexico, the Empress Michiko congratulated the cast after attending a performance of YUZURU at the Showa Memorial Hall in Tokyo. Recent activities include another tour to Japan with Solistas México-Japón to celebrate 400 years of Mexican-Japanese friendship and performances of Monteverdi’s 400-year old religious masterpiece, VESPRO DELLA BEATA VERGINE with ballet, chorus, orchestra and multimedia projections in Guadalajara’s majestic Plaza de la Libertad and in the exquisite Teatro Degollado.
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