Biography
Igor Ijurra Fernández is one of the reference conductor in Spain. Since he accepted the appointment of the Orféon Pamplonés in 2005, Igor Ijurra put this Choir in a privileged place in the international panorama, being the first Spanish choir to play at the Carnegie Hall in New York (2010) and at the London PROMS (2015), playing with the world’s best orchestras such as the New york Philharmonic, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Marinsky Orchestra or the Philharmonica of Saint Petersburg, from the hand of conductors like Vladimir Jurowski, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gianandrea Noseda or Yuri Temirkanov. But the most famous collaborations are the one with Juanjo Mena, from whom he was the student, Valery Gergiev and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos too, from whom he was one of the favourite choir directors during its last period.
With a wide musical and humanist training –Ijurra has an advanced diploma in choir directing of MUSIKENE, diploma in Singing and Music Theory of the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory but also a diploma in Law of the University of Navarra-, he was trained by prestigious choral and orchestral conductors such as Juanjo Mena, Philip Ledger, Johan Duijck, Javi Busto, Johannes Printz, Gary Graden, Peter Erdey, Laszlo Heltay, Gabriel Baltes, Donato Renzetti, Massimiliano Caldi, Kenneth Kiesler, Manuel Hernández Silva and Yaron Traub.
He prepared with the Orféon Pamplonés most of the large symphonic repertoire of choralmusic, as well as operas by Mozart, Verdi and Puccini, or “La vida breve” by Manuel de Falla, introducing almost 50 new works of its repertoire.
His musical direction has a particular importance in the production of “Carmina Burana”, produced with the Fura dels Baus.
What’s more, he is an a capella repertoire expert conductor and also conducts orchestras; these are activities that he develops with the Orféon Pamplonés just as well as regular guest in other choirs such as the RTVE Choir, the Madrid International Community Choir, the Pamplona Chamber Choir, the Navarra Symphonic Orchestra and the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ijurra performs and gives the première to works of basque-navarrese authors on a regular basis and he is the divulger of the work created by the compositor Lorenzo Ondarra (1931-2012).
In 2014, he was the laureate of the Diapasón de Oro granted by the COACE (Spanish Confederation of Choirs Associations) for his contribution to the choir music.
In November 2016, Ijurra was appointed young correspondent academician of Jakiunde, of the Sciences, Arts and Letters Academy of Navarra, Euskadi and Aquitaine and since November 2019 is correspondent acedemician.