19 TH CENTURY  |   20 TH CENTURY  |   A MANAGEMENT MODEL
THE PRESIDENTS  |  ACADEMIC ACTIVITY  |  ACADEMIC DIRECTORS
COMPOSERS  |   CONDUCTORS  |  SCHOLARS AND MUSICOLOGISTS
PUBLICATIONS  |   INSTRUMENTALISTS  |   SINGERS   
DRAMA AND BALLET  |   STUDENTS  |   ACADEMIC PLANS  |   CONCERTS

ACADEMIC DIRECTORS

The Italian influence in the music scene of Barcelona in the mid 19 th Century is reflected in the appointment of Mariano Obiols as the first music director of the Liceu. The composer, born in 1809, had studied in Italy with Mercadante and in 1937 he premiered his opera Odio ed amore in Milan. Besides being the director of the Liceo Filarmónico Dramático he also was the first musical director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, which was inaugurated with his cantata Il Regio Imene . Obiols remained as director until he died in 1888. Over fifty years after founded, the Conservatory got a second director, the composer Gabriel Balart (1824-1893), who ha also spent some time in Milan. After he died, his disciple Francesc de Paula Sánchez Cavagnach (1845-1918), who had furthered his studies in Paris, became the new director. He was also the composer of one of the most influential operas of the time, La Mesaggiera , and the archive of the Liceu has dozens of manuscripts of his music. Joan Lamote de Grignon, one of the greatest Catalonian musicians of the 20 th Century, was appointed new director when Sánchez Cavagnach died. Lamote stayed as director from 1919 until 1931, when he resigned due to the excessive work that both the Conservatory and the Municipal Band represented. Composition professor Josep Barberà was his successor. Nevertheless, from 1938 until the end of the Civil War, Lamote returned to be in charge of the Conservatory. From 1939 to 1949 Josep Biosca Casas, member of the directive board, directed the Conservatory. Also violinist Josep Munner (1944-1946) and pianist Pere Vallribera (1947) were appointed directors. From then on different musicians have followed after Josep Munner and Pere Vallribera: violinist Ricard Villanueva, pianist Anna Albors, guitarist Jaume Torrent and violinist Evelio Tieles. For the project of implementing official bachelor's in music studies, composer Benet Casablancas was incorporated to the team as the academic director.

COMPOSERS

Besides the above mentioned Obiols, Balart, Sánchez Cavagnach, Lamote de Grignon and Barberà, whom also had executive duties at the Conservatory, during over a century and a half of history, many other important composers have taught in the classrooms of the Conservatory: Antoni Nicolau , Jaume Pahissa –esthetics and history of culture professor as well as author of the book Cultura General, written specifically for the classes at the Liceu -, Avelino Abreu, Joaquim Zamacois, Ricard Valls and recently, Salvador Pueyo. In 1885 the great German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, author of the famous opera Hänsel und Gretel and close collaborator of Richard Wagner, was included in the faculty and taught harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition “in the manner of the German School.” Humperdinck's presence in the Conservatory lasted for a year and represented an episode of great influence of center-European music trends on the Catalonian music.