Born in Barcelona (1962), Ernest Martínez Izquierdo is Honorary Conductor of the Navarre Symphony Orchestra of Pamplona and Principal Guest Conductor of the ensemble Barcelona 216. Since 2019 he is also Guest Professor at ESMUC (Catalonia High School of Music in Barcelona).

Following his studies in Barcelona and Paris, he began his conducting career in 1985, when he founded the ensemble Barcelona 216. In 1988, he was appointed Assistant Director of the Spanish National Orchestra and in 1989, Assistant in the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris). From 2002 to 2006, he was Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

He has conducted the principal Spanish orchestras and ensembles. Internationally, he has worked with orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony, Kyoto Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Philharmonique de Radio France, Lyon National or Sinfónica Municipal de São Paulo, among others, and ensembles such as Ensemble Contemporain of Montreal, Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra in Helsinki.

In the operatic realm, he conducted productions in the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, the Santa Fe Opera (USA), the Quebec Opera or the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse. In 2018, he conducted a row of performances of Kaija Saariaho’s latest opera Only the sound remains at the Paris National Opera, Teatro Real de Madrid and Lincoln Centre in New York.

He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Telarc, Harmonia Mundi, Col Legno, Ircam, Stradivarius and Naxos.

He was honoured with several prizes, including the Ojo Crítico, a prize awarded by the Classical Division of the Spanish National Radio in 1995, the Catalan Roland Journalism Prize for Classical Music in 2000, the City of Barcelona Prize in 2001, the Latin Grammy in 2006 and the Diapason d’Or in 2012.

Since 2006, he has been a member of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. The State of Finland decorated him with the Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland in 2018.