Enrique Batiz (1942-present)

Mexican pianist and conductor. He began piano studies in 1950 with Francisco Agea, and continued from 1960 with György Sandor. Bátiz attended the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, but in 1962 moved to the Juilliard School of Music for piano studies with Adele Marcus, graduating there in 1965. In the same year he was a semi-finalist in the Marguerite Long Piano Competition. He then moved to Poland where from 1967 to 1970 he studied the piano with Zbigniew Drzewiecke and conducting with Stanisław Wisłocki. In 1969 he made his conducting début with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa in Mexico. Two years later he made his most important contribution to Mexican music, the founding of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, an ensemble he conducted until 1983, and again from 1990. He also served (1983–9) as music director of the Mexico City PO, and from 1984 has been a principal guest conductor with the RPO in London. In these various capacities Bátiz has made more than 150 recordings, including cycles of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies. He has also appeared as guest conductor with major orchestras in Europe, the Americas and Asia, and is particularly esteemed for his performances of Latin music in which colour and rhythm predominate.