Virginia Martínez

Virginia Martínez (Molina de Segura, 1979) began studying music when she was six years old at the Municipal Music School in her home town. At eight she began learning piano, taught by Pilar and Pedro Valero. At just thirteen she became the conductor of the Molina Municipal Children's Choirs and stayed in post until 1999.

She studied orchestra direction with Manuel Hernández Silva and Igor Dronov.

In 1999 she graduated from the Murcia Superior Conservatory and, with a Seneca Foundation grant, moved to Vienna where she graduated from the city's conservatory in Orchestra Direction with honors and a special commendation.

In 2003 she made her official debut in Murcia, leading the Murcia Region Symphony Orchestra.

In 2004 she was named "Young Person of the Year" by the Murcia Regional Ministry for Youth and appointed assistant conductor to Bertrand de Billy at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona for the staging of the operas Siegfried and El Ocaso de los Dioses.

In 2005/6 she was assistant conductor of the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra, while also working as artistic director of the Superior School of Music of Catalonia.

In 2006/7 she was assistant conductor of the Valencia Orchestra together with Yaron Traub.

She has directed the following orchestras: the Murcia Region Symphony, the Pablo Sarasate, the Valencia Orchestra, the Vallés Symphony, the Ibérica, the "Barcelona 216", the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National, the Asturias Symphony, the Granada Orchestra, the Cordoba Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, where she worked with Philippe Entremont.

In 2007 she toured Spain with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and in 2009 she directed the operetta, "La del Manojo de Rosas", in the Teatro Campoamor. In the same year she toured the USA at the helm of the Murcia Region Youth Orchestra, performing at McCormick Place in Chicago and the Lincoln Center in New York. In 2010 she directed the Vienna Conservatory Orchestra, performing in the Proms, and the Singapore Festival Orchestra. The same year she also premiered the opera, "Con los Pies en la Luna" by Toni Parera and staging by Paco Azorin for the Barcelona Festival Grec. Among her many performances, particularly worthy of note are those with the Valencia Orchestra, Menoría Orchestra and the Malaga Philharmonic.

She is currently principal conductor of the Murcia Region Youth Orchestra and artistic director of the Murcia Region Symphony Orchestra.