Juanjo Mena began his career in his native Spain, as Music Director of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, he was named Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, touring Europe and Asia and performing at the BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall. Highlights included all Bruckner symphonies, a cycle of Schubert symphonies as well Spanish and South American repertoires.
Mena has conducted most of the leading orchestras in Europe and North America. In the current season, he returns to New York for a Lincoln Center gala concert with the Teatro Real Orchestra, which makes its Lincoln Center debut. He also returns to the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Detroit and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, as well as the BBC Philharmonic, Gürzenich Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Juanjo Mena concluded his six-year tenure as Principal Conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival, where he expanded commissioning of new works and developed the Festival community.