Josetxu Obregón
With a brilliant career as a cellist, a teaching post at the Royal Conservatory in Madrid and more than 11 prizes from prestigious national and international competitions, Josetxu Obregón decided to specialise in the performance of Early Music on the historical cello.
A specialist in historically informed performance of Baroque and Classical music, Josetxu Obregón is the musical director and founder of La Ritirata, with which he has given more than 600 concerts across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and recorded 16 albums for Sony Music/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Glossa. He has established himself as a leading figure in the music of Luigi Boccherini and Spanish Classicism, as well as in the works of Antonio Caldara, Alessandro Scarlatti, and the Neapolitan Baroque.
He has performed in major venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Tokyo Opera City and Yokohama Minato-Mirai (Japan), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall (London), the Philharmonie de Paris and the Royal Opera of Versailles (France), the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), among others, receiving unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences alike.
In recent seasons, he has conducted concerts with soloists such as Núria Rial, Pierre Hantaï, Emiliano González-Toro, and Giuseppina Bridelli, performing works including the oratorio Il Giardino di Rose by Alessandro Scarlatti—of which he made the world premiere recording—various programs dedicated to Bach cantatas, the operas Les Arts Florissants by M. A. Charpentier and Don Chisciotte in corte della Duchessa by Antonio Caldara, as well as the recent modern premiere of the opera Scipione nelle Spagne by Alessandro Scarlatti, staged by Ignacio García at the Auditorio de El Escorial.
In the 2026/2027 season, he will conduct a program of Bach cantatas with soloists from the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir (OCNE) in the “Satélites” series, a tribute to Arriaga on the bicentenary of his birth at the Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, a revival in Seville of the opera Les Arts Florissants by M. A. Charpentier, and Bach’s St John Passion together with the Choir of the Community of Madrid at the Auditorio de El Escorial and the Royal Palace of Madrid.
Awarded the Culture Prize of the Community of Madrid, the Leonardo Grant from the BBVA Foundation, and more than 13 prizes in national and international competitions, Josetxu Obregón was born in Bilbao. He completed his higher studies, master’s degree, and postgraduate studies with top honors in Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, where he also specialized in historically informed performance at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.
As a cellist, he has enjoyed an extensive chamber music career, sharing the stage with musicians such as Christian Zacharias and Rosanne Philippens, and has been a member of some of Europe’s leading orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also a professor for 15 years at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. In the field of historically informed performance, he served as principal cellist for 15 years with ensembles such as L’Arpeggiata and the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO), and has collaborated with Le Concert des Nations and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, performing alongside artists such as Jordi Savall, Christina Pluhar, Philippe Jaroussky, Julia Lezhneva, and Rolando Villazón.
Since 2026, Josetxu Obregón has been the Artistic Director of the Madrid International Festival of Sacred Art.
