After 14 years leading the musical direction of Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Josep Pons will conduct his final concert on 24 July, bringing both the theatre’s 2025/26 season and his ambitious Mahler symphonic cycle to a close.
Josep Pons will conclude his 14-year tenure as Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu on 24 July, conducting Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8, the celebrated “Symphony of a Thousand.” The performance will mark not only the close of the Liceu’s 2025/26 season but also the completion of Univers Mahler, Pons’ long-term project to perform the composer’s complete symphonic output at the Barcelona opera house.
From the 2026/27 season, Pons will remain associated with the institution as Honorary Music Director, recognising a tenure that has reshaped both the artistic profile and the internal structure of the Liceu’s musical forces.
A symbolic farewell
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony provides a fitting conclusion to Pons’ final season. One of the largest works in the orchestral and choral repertoire, the score combines the medieval hymn Veni Creator Spiritus with the closing scene from Goethe’s Faust, culminating in a vast meditation on redemption through love.
For the occasion, the Liceu Chorus will be joined by the Coro Nacional de España, the Polifònica de Puig-reig and the Cor Vivaldi – Petits Cantors de Catalunya, ensembles that have all played important roles at different stages of Pons’ career.
The distinguished cast includes tenor Michael Spyres, soprano Elisabeth Teige, bass-baritones Nicholas Brownlee and Albert Dohmen, sopranos Jacquelyn Wagner and Elena Villalón, and mezzo-sopranos Beth Taylor and Mihoko Fujimura.
Fourteen years of transformation
When Pons arrived at the Liceu in 2012, he placed the orchestra and chorus at the centre of his artistic vision. During his tenure, both ensembles underwent substantial artistic and organisational development, strengthening their role within the institution while establishing a more distinctive musical identity.
The theatre also modernised its musical department, renewed its instrumental resources and expanded both ensembles through extensive recruitment. Between the 2012/13 and 2025/26 seasons, the orchestra welcomed 41 new musicians and the chorus 30 new singers, with performers now representing 20 nationalities in the orchestra and 13 in the chorus.
Over the course of his leadership, Pons conducted 84 different productions, including operas, concerts and other performances, leading nearly 360 performances that attracted around 550,000 spectators with an average attendance of 83%.
His final concert therefore serves not only as the conclusion of a season, but as the culmination of one of the most significant musical chapters in the modern history of the Liceu.
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