Elena Herrera Peraza

Orchestra conductor and musicologist. General Director of the National Opera of Cuba.

She was born in Sancti Spíritus. She began her studies in her native city in 1967. She entered the National School of Art, where she was a student of pianists Margot Rojas and Cecilio Tieles. She later studied musicology at the Higher Institute of Art with musicologist and composer Argeliers León.

In 1978 she began studying orchestra conducting at the same institution with composer and orchestra conductor Jorge López Marín, and with conductor Gonzalo Romeo; later she took a specialization course with conductors Manuel Dushesne and Olaf Koch.

In 1970 she began her teaching work at the National School of Art, where she taught music history and music appreciation classes. She was an advisor for orchestra conducting and chamber music subjects, work that she shared with the pianist accompanist of the strings department of the National School of Art.

Her career as an orchestra conductor began on January 6, 1980, and in 1984 she was appointed principal conductor of the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra; that same year she founded the Youth Orchestra of the Alejandro García Catarla and Amadeo Roldan Conservatories. Between 1985 and 1994 she was in charge of the general direction of the National Opera of Cuba and the National Ballet orchestra.

In 1996 she was appointed conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Theater of Brasilia, and later of the Symphony Orchestra of that city, as well as those of Sao Paulo and Paraiba. She was an advisor to the government for the creation of orchestras, the development of plans for specialized and mass music education, and she taught orchestra conducting classes, among whose students is Lidia Amadio. In Brazil she also conducted the rock concert offered as a tribute to the late rock musician Renato Russo; also, leading Russo's string orchestra, she conducted two concerts, one with Gal Costa and another with Wagner Tirso, Francis Hime and Nana Caymi. She is a member of the Academy of Art and Music of Brazil.

She conducted, for several seasons, the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias, where she also taught orchestra conducting at its University; since 1990, she has been invited to the Opera Festivals of Asturias.

She has also conducted the symphony orchestras of Palma de Mallorca, Córdoba, and Oviedo. At the Comic Opera of Madrid, she conducted the zarzuelas "La revoltosa" by Ruperto Chapí and "El bateo," and for Spanish television she recorded operas by Cubans Gaspar Villate, "Baltasar"; José Mauri, "La esclava"; and Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, "El caminante". She was also in charge of the Silesia and Bruo Opera Orchestra.

Repertoire
The Operas Tosca, by Giacomo Puccini
La Traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi
Il trovatore, by Verdi; Faust, by Charles Gounod
Madame Butterfly, by Puccini
Rigoletto, by Verdi
Macbeth, by Verdi
Nabucco, by Verdi
Symphony No. 3 by Camilo Saint-Saëns; Concert in D, for violin and orchestra, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach
The nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frédéric Chopin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

She holds the Distinction for National Culture

Currently she resides in Spain