Carmen TÈllez

Since the beginning of her professional career in 1985, Carmen TÈllez has conducted orchestras choruses and opera in the United States, England, Spain, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, giving special emphasis to contemporary and Latin American repertoire, and to genres which combine music with other arts. She has conducted the professional premieres of works by Gonzalo Castellanos-Yumar, Ricardo Lorenz-Abreu, Alfonso Tenreiro, from Venezuela; and Marianella Machado, Jon Appleton, and Ingram Marshall, from the United States.

TÈllez has also directed a variety of musical projects which combine her experiences as conductor and researcher. During the 1990-91 season she was resident conductor of the Hopkins Center for the Arts and guest professor of conducting at Dartmouth College. There she founded and codirected the First Inter-American Music Festival at Dartmouth. She also conducted two major oratorios with the Handel Society: Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Handel's Athalia, which she coupled with lectures on their dramatic concepts. Other projects include the premiere in Spain of Handel's Athalia in Madrid's Teatro Real.

Carmen TÈllez is a regular guest conductor of professional orchestras in her native country, including the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Municipal Orchestra of Caracas, the Maracaibo Symphony, and the Filarmonica Nacional. She has been Director of Special Projects and guest conductor of the Caracas Sinfonietta.

During the 1987-88 season TÈllez was the guest director of the National Chorus of Spain. With this group she prepared ten concerts of the National Orchestra of Spain and conducted a separate concert series for the Ciclo de C·mara y PolifonÌa at the Teatro Real. She also conducted at the Casals International Festival of 1987, receiving outstanding reviews. While in Spain, TÈllez conducted the first national tour of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, and collaborated with the Reina SofÌia Chamber Orchestra. Her performances in Spain won her the special invitation to conduct for King Juan Carlos and Queen SofÌa in January of 1988.

After 1985, Carmen TÈllez returned on several occasions to Indiana University to teach, and to conduct Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, and the 30th Anniversary gala concert of the Latin American Music Center. Since July of 1992, Carmen TÈllez is the Director of the Latin American Music Center at Indiana University. Her recent concerts with the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra and the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble include works by Mario Lavista, Charles Ives, Walter Piston, Silvestre Revueltas, Richard Felciano, Feliu Gasull-Altisent, Juan Orrego-Salas,Aurelio de la Vega, and Heitor Villa-Lobos. She has recorded music by Gasull, de la Vega, and Orrego-Salas for Nova Era and McMillan/Mcgraw Hill.