José Fabra has been pursuing a professional career as a conductor of both symphonic and lyrical works for well over twenty-five years. He has conducted prominent musical ensembles, such as the Orquestra de València, the Comunidad de Madrid Orchestra, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Castilla y León Symphonic Orchestra, the Principado de Asturias Symphonic Orchestra, the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ciudad de Oviedo Symphonic Orchestra, the Santiago de Chile Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wiener KammerOrchester, among others, and worked with renowned national and international artists, like Maurice André, Montserrat Caballé, Pedro Iturralde, Rosa Torres-Pardo or Leonel Morales, in many of the main national concert halls.
With a vast symphonic repertoire which spans from the baroque period to the twentieth century, he has also been at the helm of many operas: Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Pasquale, Gianni Schicchi, Rigoletto and La Bohéme, are just a few of the titles he has conducted in noted stages like the Kursaal in San Sebastián, the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, the Palacio Valdés in Avilés and the Teatro Reina Victoria in Madrid.
He knows really well the Spanish lyrical repertoire, since he has conducted over thirty titles, including several premieres and appearances at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, with works like Gigantes y Cabezudos, La del soto del Parral, El Dúo de La Africana, La Corte de Faraón, El Barberillo de Lavapiés– with Calixto Bieito as stage director –, as well as in the Oviedo Lyric Festival, where he has conducted, among others, La Leyenda del beso, La Boda y el Baile de Luis Alonso, Don Monolito or La Calesera.
Likewise, he usually conducts in important Spanish auditoriums other works like La Tabernera del Puerto – staged by Gustavo Tambascio and premiered at the Teatro Cervantes in Málaga –, La Revoltosa, Los Gavilanes, La Verbena de la Paloma, El Caserío and Doña Francisquita.In December 2001 Fabra brought a new production of El Barberillo de Lavapiésto Vienna, where he conducted twenty performances at the Kammeroper, receiving great praise from the Austrian media: “…the best piece of Spanish style of music that has ever been heard around here…”. Other zarzuela titles brought by José Fabra to international stages have been La Generala – Théâtre Châtelet in Paris, with a production of Teatro de la Zarzuela –, and Pan y Torosat theTeatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile (both in 2008 with Emilio Sagi as stage director), also with excellent reviews from critics and audiences.
His research on the Spanish lyric genre has earned him the Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) given by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, and he has been a speaker in several conferences on musicology sponsored by the Spanish Society of Musicology and held at the Universidad Autónoma de Murcia and the Universitat de València.
Throughout his career he has also paid a great deal of attention to pedagogical activities, frequently working with the Young Spanish National Orchestra, teaching at the Opera Studio of the Palau de la Música in València, and creating the Ciutat de Torrent Orchestra, whose members are some of the best music students and professionals of Valencia and which performs a wide array of musical pieces: symphonies, choruses, operas, film scores, etc.
José Fabra is also an official Music and Scenic Arts Professor; right now, he teaches at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música in Torrent, and before that he taught at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Joaquín Rodrigo” in Valencia, precisely where he began his training as a conductor under Eduardo Cifre and Manuel Galduf. He pursued his studies in renowned international centres, such as the Academie Internationale de Besançon (France), the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and the Scuola de Alto Perfezionamiento Musical in Saluzzo (Italy), and the Bachakademie in Santiago de Compostela, under Ferdinand Leitner, Helmuth Rilling and Antoni Ros Marbá, among others.
He has conducted worldwide premieres of works by Tomás Marco, Javier Darias, César Cano, and other authors. His performances have been broadcasted many times through TV and radio stations, such as TVE, A3TV, RNE and Austrian ORF 2, and he is a regular contributor in the programmes of the concerts performed in the Palau de la Música de València.