Prof. Nicolás Pasquet

Professor Nicolás Pasquet was born in Montevideo/Uruguay, where he studied violin and conducting at the State Music Academy. He later completed his studies at the Music Academies in Stuttgart and Nuremberg, Germany.

In 1986 and 1987 Pasquet was selected for the National Young Conductors Program by the German Council of Music, and in 1987, he was awarded the First Prize at the 37th International Conducting Competition in Besançon, France.

Nicolás Pasquet has led several international concert tours with different national and foreign orchestras, travelling to Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, South America (Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia), USA, Australia, South-Korea, Namibia and several countries in Southeast Asia.

In 1993, he became Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Pécs, Hungary, with which he toured nationally and internationally, in addition to conducting the regular concert series in Pécs and Budapest. In 1998, he was awarded the Béla Bartók/Ditta Pásztory Prize and the Lászlo-Lajtha Prize in Budapest in honor of his support, promotion, and performances of Hungarian music.

From 1996 to 2001 Nicolás Pasquet was Chief Conductor and GMD (General Music Director) of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Neubrandenburg, Germany (Neubrandenburger Philharmonie), conducting its concert series, concert tours in Germany and abroad, and several CD recordings, as well as its regular collaboration with the Deutschlandfunk Cologne and the DeutschlandRadio Berlin.

Subsequently, Nicolás Pasquet was Chief Conductor of the Coburg State Theater Orchestra, where he was responsible for its concert series.

So far, Pasquet has recorded a large discography for the labels Marco Polo, Naxos and Beyer. With the Pécs Symphony, he recorded the complete series of symphonic works by the Hungarian composer Lászlo Lajtha (7 CDs) for the Marco Polo label. His most recent recordings were the integrale of Pierre Rode’s works for violin and orchestra, with the violinist Friedemann Eichhorn and the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the SWR orchestra Kaiserslautern, and the highly acclaimed recording of violin and cello concertos by Max and Antoine Bohrer, again with Friedemann Eichhorn, violin, and Alexander Hülshoff, cello.

In 1994, Nicolás Pasquet was appointed Professor for Conducting at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT in Weimar, Germany, where he teaches an international conducting class and is Chief Conductor of the symphony orchestra. Nicolás Pasquet will retire from this position in Summer 2024.

He also has taught master classes in Spain, Austria, Brazil, Uruguay, Great Britain, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic and is a regular member of national and international competition juries.

Over the years, Pasquet has also developed an intense collaboration with youth and student orchestras such as the Baden-Württemberg, Bavarian and Hessen State Youth Orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra Belvedere in Weimar and the Interregional Youth Orchestra Baden-Württemberg/Ochsenhausen (IRO). He has conducted the South-East Asian Youth Chamber Orchestra, based at the Mahidol University, Salaya/Bangkok (Thailand), and the OJCA, the Central American and Caribbean Youth Symphony Orchestra. Until March 2024, Nicolás Pasquet has been Chief Conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the state of Hesse, Germany (LJSO Hessen). For his outstanding work with this orchestra he has been awarded the Order of Merit of the state of Hessen, in 2024.​

From the academic year 2024/25 on, Nicolás Pasquet will lead the Zubin Mehta chair of Conducting at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, Madrid.