ANTONI ROS MARBÀ (L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1937). One of the most significant figures from the world of music in the second half of the twentieth century and an important orchestral conductor in Catalonia. He studied at the Municipal Conservatory of Music in Barcelona before furthering his studies with Eduard Toldrà and Sergiu Celibidache, who both left a strong influence on his work.
From a very young age he has produced excellent work, arranging and orchestrating pieces written by different composers or pieces for traditional cobla music ensembles. He has held the post of conductor with the RTVE Symphonic Orchestra, the Barcelona City Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Chamber Orchestra of Holland, and the Galicia Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as conducting as an invited conductor with over 150 different orchestras around the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
In his career teaching music, Marbà has worked as a music professor at the Municipal Conservatory of Music and the Liceu Music School, both in Barcelona, and at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory and the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid, as well as directing his own “Antoni Ros Marbà International Course of Orchestra Conducting” for many years. He also has an extensive catalogue of over six hundred recordings in his career.
He received the prestigious Sant Jordi Cross award from the Catalan government in 1988, as well as the National Music Award (1989) and the Catalan government’s National Music Award (1990) among others.
He has composed in a huge variety of musical genres: songs, children’s music, chamber music, instrumental and vocal pieces, symphonic, religious, coblas, and, recently, opera, composing Benjamin at Portbou, with libretto by Anthony C. Madigan (DINSIC, 2022).
