Conductor Armando Merino (Madrid, 1984), who was awarded the first Kurt Masur Scholarship by the International Kurt Masur Institute and the Halle Opera in 2020, carries out most of his musical engagements in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and has a special interest in the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. Winner of the 2021 Bavarian Award for the Advancement of the Arts, in 2024 he conducted a new production of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Lady Magnesia at the Bavarian State Opera, and also conducted Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Hamletmaschine at the Kassel State Theater.
Merino has worked with major orchestras such as the Staatsorchester Kassel, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Mexican Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Magdeburgische Philharmonie. He works regularly with groups specialising in contemporary repertoire, including the Schallfeld Ensemble, der/gelbe/klang, the mdi ensemble, NAMES, Ensemble Interface, Collegium Novum Zürich and Ensemble Sillages, and he has appeared at festivals such as Wien Modern, the Munich Opera Festival, Aspekte Salzburg, Dialoge Salzburg, the Impuls Festival, MaerzMusik Berlin and Ultraschall Berlin. He has also worked with important institutions such as Bayerischer Rundfunk, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, ARTE TV Cine-Concert and 2eleven music film, and has made recordings for the Mode, NEOS and Kairos labels. Since 2022 he has lectured at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich.
