Spanish-born conductor ALBERTO-HOLD GARRIDO was raised in Denmark. He studied choral and orchestral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki in the legendary conducting class of Jorma Panula. He also took classes with Sergiu Celibidache in Mainz, Germany.
After graduating from the Sibelius Academy in 1994, young Hold-Garrido started to work as assistant conductor at the Finnish National Opera where he conducted I due Foscari, Salome, La Traviata and Il Barbiere di Siviglia amongst others. During this time he worked closely with stage directors August Everding, Götz Friedrich and Giancarlo del Monaco, just to mention a few. From 2001 to 2003 he succeeded Leif Segerstam in Stockholm as Music Director and Principal Conductor. There, Maestro Hold-Garrido conducted a large number of opera titles such as Der fliegende Holländer, Rheingold, Othello, Cavalleria Rusticana / I Pagliacci, Carmen, Carmina Burana, Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other highlights at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm include Don Carlo with Hillevi Martinpelto and Peter Mattei, preserved in a highly acclaimed recording, as well as a tour of Norma to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1998 with soprano Marina Mesheriakova in the title role.
For many years maestro Hold-Garrido has been one of the most popular opera conductors in Finland and Sweden. He has led new productions of Puccini’s La Rondine in Helsinki and Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Stockholm. In summer 2005 Maestro Hold-Garrido returned to Savonlinna with Aida, to Stockholm with L’elisir d’Amore and conducted Tosca at the Hedeland Festival in Denmark. He went back to the Savonlinna Opera Festival to conduct Rigoletto and the Finnish National Opera with Bellini’s Norma, staged by Renata Scotto. Soon after, the Finnish National Opera invited him back for Norma and Salome and he jumped in to conduct Giordano’s Andrea Chénier staged by Giancarlo del Monaco. In 2009 he conducted the premiere of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Savonlinna Opera festival. In 2010 his engagements included a new Carmen at the Finnish National Opera and Tosca at the Stockholm Royal Opera. From 2013 until 2018 Alberto HoldGarrido was the principal conductor of the Kuopio City Orchestra.
In addition to his career in Scandinavia maestro Hold-Garrido has also established his name in other parts of Europe: the Welsh National Opera and the Frankfurt Opera with La Traviata, Macbeth in Santiago del Chile, St. Gallen with Norma and Ernani (2005/06), Il Trovatore at the Welsh National Opera, Salome in the Novaya Opera in Moscow and a Gala with opera rarities by Portuguese composer Alfredo Keil at the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon are some of his stages during the last years. He also conducted La bohème at the Graz Opera and Tosca at the Nationaltheater in Weimar. Recent engagements include Les contes d’Hoffmann by Offenbach at the Malmö Opera, La Traviata at the Royal Swedish Opera, La Fanciulla del West at the Finnish National Opera, Turandot in Trondheim and Norma at the Estonian National Opera, Attila in Santiago de Chile, Aida in Toulon as well as Carmen and Turandot in Helsinki.
Maestro Hold-Garrido was recently engaged for Nabucco at the Tampere Opera and Un ballo in maschera at Malmö Opera. He also conducted the revival of Carmen at the Finnish National Opera and debuted with Ponchielli's La Gioconda in Malmö. In 2019 he returned to Tampere with La bohéme and in 2020 with Carmen in the new production by Marco Bjurström. His 2021/22 season started with some symphonic concerts in Finland and continued with I Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana at the Finnish National Opera.