Top tenor starts own label

The Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez will launch Florez Records in October.

The debut release will be zarazuela songs, accompanied by the Peruvian youth otherstra, conductor Ana Maria Patiño-Osorio.

Press release below.

The multi award winning Peruvian-Austrian tenor Juan Diego Flórez is firmly established at the top of his field. He has now founded his own label under the name Florez Records. The first album will be released in autumn 2024 and is dedicated to the zarzuela genre. It will also mark the star tenor’s first recording with Sinfonía por el Perú Youth Orchestra and Choir, an organisation that forms part of the social project he founded and supports, Sinfonía por el Perú. This first recording is led by conductor Guillermo García Calvo, who looks back on a long international career and has been Music Director of the Teatro de la Zarzuela between 2020 and 2024. A tour of major European arts centres featuring with selected romances and orchestral pieces accompanies the release. Stops include Teatro Real, Madrid (19 September), Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona (21 September), Vienna Konzerthaus (24 September), Victoria Hall, Geneva (27 September) and Philharmonie de Paris (30 September).

Juan Diego Flórez has made a name for himself as bel canto specialist in particular. By turning to “zarzuela”, he returns to the genre with which he opened up the world of opera as a young singer and composer of popular songs. “These romances full of passion and emotion represent an almost unique opportunity for Spanish and Latin American tenors to sing in their mother tongue” he says, describing his close connection to this Spanish form of opéra comique or operetta which is very well-known and popular in the Hispanic world but less represented in other countries. By founding his own label, Juan Diego Flórez pursues the goal of documenting his artistic visions in a self-determined way. The next recording plans include both solo albums as well as complete operas. Having his own label also gives him the opportunity to support projects with Sinfonía por el Perú as well as promote young artists.

Juan Diego Flórez is at home on stages all over the world and has received numerous accolades and awards in recognition of both his artistic career and his philanthropic endeavours. In 2011 Juan Diego Flórez founded Sinfonía por el Perú – a far-reaching social project that gives young musicians from the most vulnerable areas of the country a voice through orchestras and choirs throughout Peru. The children and adolescents who participate in the programs not only improve their musical skills, but also experience significant growth in their self-esteem, social skills and academic performance. Exchange programs have already taken the musicians of the program to the Teatro Real in Madrid and together with the choir to the Lucerne Festival. In 2022 they undertook their first tour of Europe accompanying Juan Diego Flórez in performances at the three most important festivals in Central Europe: the Salzburg Festival, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and the Lucerne Festival.