Néstor Bayona
Néstor Bayona is a Spanish conductor and has been appointed Mackerras Fellow at the English National Opera for the 2026-28 seasons.In 2023, he served as Resident Conductor of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), having previously worked as the orchestra’s Assistant Conductor during the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons. Over a career spanning more than a decade, Néstor Bayona has earned recognition from leading international orchestras and opera houses.
Highlights of recent seasons include symphonic concerts with the Orquesta de Castilla y León, the Spanish premiere of Ravel’s newly discovered Sémiramis at the Palau de la Música Catalana, and debuts at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, Oviedo’s Teatro Campoamor, and Teatr Wielki in Warsaw.
His operatic engagements have included conducting Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Opera Śląska, Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci at the Hungarian Opera in Cluj-Napoca, assisting Marin Alsop in Penderecki’s Die schwarze Maske at NOSPR, and collaborating with Lawrence Foster on productions of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Berg’s Lulu at the Enescu Festival.
Previously, Néstor Bayona served as Assistant Conductor at the Opéra de Marseille during the 2018/19 and 2021/22 seasons. He has also collaborated on productions at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Komische Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, and with Pentatone on a recording of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West.
As a symphonic conductor, he has appeared with the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Asturias Symphony Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonía, the Extremadura Orchestra, the Transilvania State Philharmonic, the Târgu Mureș Philharmonic, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, and the Kraków Philharmonic.
Néstor Bayona studied piano and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was awarded the Gold Medal, and at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, before completing postgraduate studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
In 2021, he received the Associate of the Royal Northern College of Music (ARNCM) distinction in recognition of his professional achievements. In 2015, he was awarded the Ciutat de Lleida International Prize for his contribution to the cultural life of his hometown, Lleida.
He is currently Artistic Director of the Ricard Viñes International Piano Competition and Festival in Lleida.
Néstor Bayona, photo by Grzesiek Mart
