Ernest Martínez Izquierdo was born in 1962 in Barcelona, where he received his musical education, studying conducting with Antoni Ros Marbà. He began his conducting career in 1985, with the creation of the ensemble “Barcelona 216”, specialized in the interpretation of the contemporary chamber music repertoire. That same year, he also joined the National Youth Orchestra of Spain as assistant conductor, a position he held until 1987. In 1988, he was offered the position of assistant conductor to Jesús López Cobos in the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid, and the following year, under invitation from Pierre Boulez and thanks to a grant from the French government, he moved to Paris to serve as assistant conductor with the Ensemble InterContemporain.

Either as a guest conductor or with his own musical groups, he has performed around the world, including renowned halls such as the Théâtre Châtelet in Paris, the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Filharmonia Narodowa in Warsaw, Parco della Musica in Rome, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Poly Theatre in Beijing and the Festival Hall in Osaka. 

He has also conducted the most important Spanish orchestras and ensembles. Internationally, he has worked with such orchestras as the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra,  Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philarmonic, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, l’Orchestre National de Lille, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, l’Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Beethoven Academie of Antwerp,  Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich and Klangforum Wien in Vienna, Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra in Helsinki.

In 2008, he conducted Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater, staged by Peter Sellars, at the Finish National Opera House in Helsinki, as well as at the Santa Fe Opera Festival (New Mexico, USA), to great critical and public acclaim.
 
He has recorded for Telarc, Harmonia Mundi, Col Legno, Hyades Arts, Ircam, Discmedi and Stradivarius. At present, with violinist Tianwa Yang and the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, he is working on recording the complete works of Pablo Sarasate for the Naxos label.

Outstanding among the numerous prizes he has been awarded are the Ojo Crítico, a prize awarded by the Classical Division of the Spanish National Radio in 1995, Catalan Roland Journalism Prize for Classical Music in 2000, and the Latin Grammy in 2006, for an album dedicated to George Gershwin which he recorded with Michel Camilo. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi.
From 2002 to 2006, he was the Music Director Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and he continues to serve as Principal Guest Conductor of that ensemble through 2009. Since 1997, he has held the position of Music Director of the Navarre Symphony Orchestra in Pamplona.

Last updated February 2010