About
José Antonio Sainz Alfaro was born in San Sebastián in 1956. He has a degree in physical sciences from the University of Navarra. His vocation and early musical intuition were channeled by the founder of the San Ignacio Choir, Father Garayoa, whom he would replace years later at the head of the group. But before that he would study music at the San Sebastián Conservatory with teachers such as Francisco Escudero and Tomás Aragüés. He would complete his training by following different courses in choral conducting abroad.
His relationship with Father Garayoa's Choir, which he directed between 1980 and 1988, was most fruitful, both inside and outside the Basque Autonomous Community. It significantly expanded the repertoire of the ensemble and regularized its record policy, particularly within the chapter of religious polyphony, while taking it to the Santander Festival, the Musical Week of Cuenca or the Chigiana Academy of Siena. Under his mandate the Ignatian Coral won several times the first prize of the Choral Mass Contest of Tolosa.
In parallel, Sainz Alfaro was developing an important pedagogical work in the Guipúzcoa Choir Federation, where he still continues to conduct courses aimed at the new promotions of specialty musicians.
In 1974 he had his first contact with the Orfeón donostiarra, in which he entered as a baritone. Throughout the eighties he collaborated intimately with the head of the formation, Antxon Ayestarán, who soon became an assistant. Appointed deputy director, he contributed to the preparation and assembly of numerous new works and helped promote a still timid expansion policy.
Appointed Titular Director of the Orfeón Donostiarra in 1988, incorporates since then in the repertoire of this entity numerous works among which we should highlight The Mass in fa de Bruckner, Oedipe de Enesco, The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi de Menotti, Oedipus Rex de Stravinsky , Mors et Vita de Gounod, Vespers of Rachmaninov, Redemption of Franck, Symphony No. 2 of Mendelssohn or The dream of Geroncio de Elgar.
This feverish activity is at the base of the modern image of the Orfeón Donostiarra, increasingly known outside of our country, and in turn highlights the point of view of its current director, who in a very recent stage has initiated a promising work in front of different orchestras, such as the National Philharmonic of Latvia, Spanish Radio and Television Symphony, Euskadi Symphony, Andalusian Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Istanbul Symphony, Philharmonia Pomorska and the Sofia Opera National with which he has reviewed , next to the Orfeón that governs, a good part of the most committed symphonic-choral repertoire.
National Radio of Spain granted Sainz Alfaro the Critical Eye Music Award 1992.