Press
What they say about Angel
Invigorating… Gil-Ordóñez led a vital rendition
Alex RossThe New Yorker (April 2017)
(…) one of the country’s most innovative music groups – the Post-Classical Ensemble (…)
Philip KennicottThe Washington Post (February 2015)
Charismatic PCE Music Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez led a taut, unforgettable reading.
Brett CampbellMusical America (March 2011)
Articles 14
Washington musicians get creative in the wake of Covid-19 fallout
During the shutdown, PostClassical Ensemble has been sharing archived videos of their performances, followed up with Zoom chats bringing listeners and artists together. Although Gil-Ordóñez was initially skeptical about Zoom chats, he sees now that it is a powerful way to enhance the relationship with the ensemble’s audience. “We are putting faces on those who have followed us for years,” he enthused. “We can see them, and we are giving them a platform to participate more in the discussions. So this is a very positive part of having no live music: we are getting to know our audiences better. We are planning on continuing this as a complement to everything we have done before. To me this is the most important lesson of this time.”
High Fidelity
He is an angel. In fact, that’s his first name and his passport ends with the last names Gil-Ordóñez. Perhaps it is more appropiate to portray him as an archangel for the immense work he has done in favor of music –real music– not only in his commendable career as a teacher at Wesleyan university and Georgetown, but in the invaluable work leading Post-Classical Ensemble, hand in hand with the genius of Joseph Horowitz.
Open your ears
For PostClassical Ensemble, it is not enough to complain about the monotony, or the ethnic or social bias, of symphonic programs. [Horowitz and Angel Gil-Ordóñez] devise alternatives… They produce stimulating evidence the music belongs to life and to the cultural and political environment of the times in which it was created… Classical music needs to leave the confinement of concert halls.
PostClassical Ensemble Hosts Indonesia Gamelan Experience at Washington Cathedral
The Indonesian gamelan will be the centerpiece of PostClassical Ensemble’s latest musical creation, Cultural Fusion: The Gamelan Experience, on Jan. 23 at the Washington National Cathedral.
Concert reviews 28
Flamenco meets Anatolia: Angel Gil-Ordonez to perform in Türkiye
In an extraordinary collision of flamenco rhythms and Anatolian melodies, Maestro Angel Gil-Ordonez will orchestrate an epic journey of cultural convergence in Türkiye for the first time, forging unbreakable bonds between Türkiye and Spain in a mesmerizing symphonic celebration organized by the Spanish Embassy in Türkiye.
PostClassical Ensemble Fills Stage With Falla
Though he is probably the best-known Spanish composer, in this country Manuel de Falla isn’t a marquee name. Many of his compositions are piano pieces, chamber music works or zarzuelas — light operas rarely presented here […] PostClassical Ensemble’s two dozen expert players followed Gil-Ordóñez’s every move, giving a flawless, thoroughly nuanced performance.
Falla and Lorca resume their friendship in Washington to break down stereotypes about Spain
A play on the relationship between the composer and the poet and a recreation by director Ángel Gil-Ordóñez of El retablo de Maese Pedro commemorate in the U.S. capital the centenary of the musical piece inspired by Don Quixote.
From PostClassical Ensemble, a wildly bold ‘Entwined: A Double Feature’
Wednesday night, I was at the John F. Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater to review the debut presentation of a wildly bold experiment headed up by the eclectic and accomplished PostClassical Ensemble in an orchestral program, Entwined: A Double Feature. […] As an audience member, you could enter this evening’s alchemic collaboration through any of the parts represented, but, taken as a whole, it proved a dazzling feast.
Disc reviews 54
Gil-Ordóñez Conducts Revueltas & Copland
My regular readers know that I generally avoid “classic film scores” like the plague, only making exceptions for the truly exceptional ones, whether classical or jazz. I made an exception for this disc because Silvestre Revueltas, whose name is unfortunately not as well known north of Mexico as it should be, and Aaron Copland were two of the finest composers of their time.
Symphonische Filmmusik oder, ohne Bild, richtige Tondichtungen
The vital and immensely colorful, very narrative music [of Redes] is superbly played under the direction of Angel Gil-Ordonez. […] Copland’s score is highly atmospheric and supports the expressiveness of the images with no less expressive, quasi-argumentative music. The result is a wonderful, highly original score with a lasting effect, which can be heard on this CD in a very haunting interpretation. Listened to without the movie pictures, it becomes, like the music of Revueltas, a magnificent tone poem.
Composer Bernard Herrmann Showcases His Range On PostClassical Ensemble
Herrmann composed some of the best-known film music ever written — especially the scores he wrote for Alfred Hitchcock. Now a new CD shows another side of Herrmann that’s equally memorable […] The variety of music on this CD –colorful, romantic, witty, patriotic, nerve-wracking– shows how much Bernard Herrmann’s concert and radio music equaled the astonishing range of his work for film.
HERRMANN: Whitman. Souvenirs de Voyage. Psycho
Each new album by PostClasical Ensemble and its director, Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, is both a surprise and a discovery. The deserved result of investigating beyond the predictable. And this new album of his is not an exception in his line, but the joyous confirmation of it.
Interviews 11
Q&A with Angel Gil-Ordóñez
Maestro Angel Gil-Ordóñez, Spanish-born American conductor, founder of the PostClassical Ensemble — and our February cover model — spoke with The Georgetowner about his passion for music, what he loves about the D.C. arts scene and his upcoming projects.
Ángel Gil-Ordóñez: “En Europa tenemos una visión muy confundida de EE.UU.”
PostClassical Ensemble, la plataforma musical creada por el director de orquesta español afincado en Washington y el musicólogo Joseph Horowitz, lleva dos décadas reinventando la música clásica en Estados Unidos.
Entrevistas: Ángel Gil-Ordóñez
[…] His latest album on the Naxos label is dedicated to composer Bernard Herrmann, author of the soundtracks for some of Hitchcock’s most famous films. The record offers the absolute first recording of Whitman, a radio drama whose music Herrmann composed in 1944 on texts of the great American poet.
A musical job unlike any other: A talk with Angel Gil-Ordóñez of the PostClassical Ensemble
The Ensemble’s latest innovative programming series, with the South Dakota Symphony, examines the controversial relationship of Native American and American identity through music.
Podcasts 22
Aaron Copland And The Spirit Of Labor Day
The world of work has inspired some of our best-known classical music. From Schumann to Shostakovich, to one of the most respected American classical composers of the twentieth century: Aaron Copland. For Labor Day, Copland is our focus.
Ángel Gil-Ordoñez y PostClassical Ensemble
We spoke with Ángel Gil-Ordoñez who presents a new album, recorded with PostClassical Ensemble, with works by Bernard Herrmann.
Maestros cantores
Ricardo de Cala from Radio Nacional de España’s radio program Maestros cantores asks Angel Gil-Ordóñez about his new projects.
PostClassical Ensemble performs works by Bernard Herrmann
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, the musical director of PostClassical Ensemble, tells us about the new recording of works by the North American composer Bernard Herrmann.
Videos 5
The Chairman Mixes: The Baton and The Martini
The Chairman Mixes is a series of chats with cocktail pairings. In this first episode, Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, PostClassical Ensemble’s conductor and music director, joins Douglas Rathbun, PCE’s board chair, looking into the conductor as a profession. The discussion is paired with the 1888 recipe of the classic Martini cocktail.
A virtual talk with the Ambassador of Spain
Un café con… is a series of virtual talks with the Ambassador of Spain, Santiago Cabanas, and Spanish influencers living in the U.S. Organized by the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain and hosted by the Ambassador, during 30 minutes you will have the opportunity to get to know these special guests better.
Mirador Cultural TV's Hugo Almanza interviews Ángel Gil-Ordoñez
Mirador Cultural TV interviews the internationally renowned Spanish-American conductor Ángel Gil-Ordoñez, as part of the Christmas Gala concert that the Orchestra and choirs of the Trinitate Philarmonia offered to the Leonese audience at the Renacimiento Auditorium on Wednesday, December 19, 2018.
The Importance Of Music Education For Youth. A Conversation With Maestro Angel Gil-Ordóñez.
My professional work as a conductor has been always accompanied with a dedication to young musicians. In this video I present some thoughts about the importance of music education for the youngest, for the underprivileged, and for those whose future professional life won’t be related to artistic activities.
Downloadable photos 26


























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