Jaime Martín’s appointment in June as Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is major news for the Australian music scene. Taking over from Sir Andrew Davis, whose tenure ended in 2019, the London-based Spanish maestro will kick off his first season at the helm of Australia’s longest-established professional symphony orchestra with a gala performance and a week of concerts in February 2022.
Jaime Martín. Photo © Chris Dunlop.
A regular visitor to Australia, Martín first collaborated with MSO in June 2019 and returned again this February enduring the mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine. This August, he will fly to Melbourne to work with MSO musicians and the MSO chorus, and – something he is particularly passionate about – lead a project with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra.
The oldest of six, Martín was born in Santander in northern Spain into a family with no professional musical connections whatsoever. “I was a freak,” he laughs, chatting over Zoom from his home in Teddington in south-west London. In fact, his enthusiasm for classical music was kindled by a father with a record collection who took him, aged eight, to...
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