OCM Symphony Orchestra, founded in 2006, enjoyed a great welcoming from the public due to their work in disseminating classical music among very diverse crowds, especially by targeting the young music-lover audience. They have performed in venues such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, Gran Teatre del Liceu, l’Auditori de Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional de Música de Madrid, Auditorio de Saragossa, Palacio Euskalduna de Bilbao, Palau de les Arts de València and Auditorio Víctor Villegas de Murcia among others, having a stable musical season with their own productions in Barcelona, Tarragona and Lleida.
Tomàs Grau is the permanent Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, and since the 2017-18 season, Salvador Mas initiated the role of Principal Guest Conductor, who previously played Jordi Mora and José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana. OCM launched their resident project at Auditori del Tívoli in Vendrell during the 2009-10, currently ongoing.
OCM Symphony Orchestra has collaborated with conductors such as Antoni Ros Marbà, Edmon Colomer, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Marzio Conti, John Rutter, Josep Caballé Domenech, Virginia Martínez, Salvador Brotons, Diego Martin-Etxebarria and Massimo Spadano; and soloists like Stephen Kovacevich, Sabine Meyer, Steven Isserlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Roberto Alagna, Gautier Capuçon, Mark Padmore, Alexander Melnikov, Seong-Jin Cho, Alice Sara Ott, Sayaka Shoji, Albrecht Mayer, Clara-Jumi Kang, Ainhoa Arteta, Asier Polo, Leticia Moreno, Pablo Ferrández, Judith Jáuregui, Albert Guinovart or Rafael Aguirre, among others.
Despite developing their main activities in Catalonia, OCM regularly performs around Spain and has toured Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland. They have recorded, among others, the albums Die Romantische Seele, Alba Eterna, Tempesta Esvaïda, A Christmas Tale and Mediterráneo.
Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
An inspired and highly sensitive conductor, Tomàs Grau is characterized by his precise and clear gesture and by the sincerity of his musical readings, which seek to transmit the light, delicate emotions of each of the scores, sharing with the audience his love for the music.
He has conducted several international soloists, including Maria João Pires, Mischa Maisky, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Gautier Capuçon, Sabine Meyer, Steven Isserlis, Alexander Melnikov, Seong-Jin Cho, Mark Padmore, Stephen Kovacevich, Alice Sara Ott, Sayaka Shoji, Albrecht Mayer, Clara-Jumi Kang, Asier Polo, Ainhoa Arteta, Leticia Moreno, Judith Jáuregui, Iván Martín, Jesús Reina and Albert Guinovart in all the main concert halls in Spain, including the Palau de la Música Catalana, L’Auditori in Barcelona and the National Auditorium in Madrid, as well as internationally at the Tonhalle in Zurich.
Nowadays, Tomàs is the Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the OCM Symphony Orchestra, and he is often invited to conduct other orchestras, such as the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Orquesta de Córdoba, Orquesta Sinfónica de Burgos, Orquestra Nacional Clàssica d’Andorra, Jove Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, Orquesta Sinfónica Vigo 430, Camerata Internacional de Barcelona, Orquesta Academia Galamian and Camerata Eduard Toldrà, among others. He has recorded for labels such as SONY Classical, ARS Produktion (label of the year at the International Classical Music Awards), Discmedi and La mà de guido.
Among his immediate commitments, he will be conducting soloists like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Ivo Pogorelich, Midori, Paul Lewis and Alexei Volodin.
Born in Barcelona in 1979, Tomàs Grau studied music at the Superior Conservatory of Music in his own city. He continued his conducting studies at the Superior School of Music of Catalonia, where he graduated in Orchestral Conducting, with top ratings in 2007. His Orchestral Conducting studies were completed in the Wiener Meisterkurse.
Principal Guest Conductor
Born in Barcelona, Salvador Mas was musically trained at the Escolania de Montserrat and the Conservatori Superior de Música in Barcelona. Having graduated from the Fundación Juan March and the Austrian Ministry of Research and Science, he studied orchestral and choral conducting with Hans Swarowsky and Günther Theuring, respectively, at the Superior School of Music and Dramatic Art in Vienna. He was awarded a scholarship twice that enabled him to study in Salzburg with Bruno Maderna and Franco Ferrara in Siena.
Salvador Mas has been honoured by the Fundación Española de la Vocación, the Austrian Ministry of Research and Science and the II Hans Swarowsky International Conductors Competition.
He began his professional career at the Staatstheater Mainz, and was appointed Chief Director of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona and its principal guest conductor, and later, Conductor of Orfeó Català.
As well as conducting the main Spanish orchestras, Mas is regularly invited to Austria, Belgium, Canada, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Romania and periodically by the Berlin Radio, Leipzig and Saarbrücken orchestras and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has been Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Würtemberg (Germany), the Limburg Symphony Orchestra, in Maastricht (The Netherlands), the Symphony Orchestra and the Musikverein Choir in Düsseldorf (Germany), the Israel Chamber Orchestra and the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.