Enrique Jordá (March 24, 1911 – March 18, 1996) was a Spanish- American conductor. Born in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

(

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), later on he was a naturalized US citizen. After conducting in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, he was music director of the

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

from 1954 to 1963. He made several stereophonic recordings in San Francisco for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

in 1957 and 1958. He made several highly acclaimed recordings for Decca in the late 1940s and early 1950s of Spanish music with the London Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, including two recordings of Nights in The Gardens of Spain with Clifford Curzon as soloist. Several of these have been reissued on the Dutton label. During his tenure in San Francisco he gave the world premiere of Joaquín Rodrigo's '' Fantasía para un gentilhombre'' with Andrés Segovia as the soloist. Jorda made recordings with both the San Francisco Symphony and the Symphony of the Air, several of which have recently been reissued on CD. His third recording of '' Nights in the Gardens of Spain'' was made with the San Francisco Orchestra with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

as soloist. His final recordings with the orchestra were for CRI in 1962. After he left San Francisco, he was a guest conductor in Europe, South America and Australia. He published a book on conducting, "El Director de Orquesta Ante la Partitura," in 1969, and from 1970 to 1976 was the music director of the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra (now: Antwerp Symphony Orchestra). During the San Francisco Symphony's 1973 European tour, the musicians were reunited with Jordá for the final time. Jordá died at 84 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium, following a two-month illness related to a blood transfusion. His daughter Tessa, who married Sir David Brewer, has been awarded the OBE.

Notes

1911 births 1996 deaths Spanish conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Spanish emigrants to the United States American male conductors (music) People from San Sebastián Basque musicians American people of Basque descent 20th-century Spanish musicians Naturalized citizens of the United States 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians Music of the San Francisco Bay Area Spanish male musicians Music directors of the San Francisco Symphony Chief conductors of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra {{US-conductor-stub