In his fifteenth and final season as Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Lopez-Cobos personified the commitment to excellence, musical knowledge and love of music that has led the CSO into a new era of acclaim.

During the 2000-2001 season he led the CSO in twenty eight Music Hall concerts and a major European tour, launched by an appearance at Carnegie Hall on January 22, 2001. Between January 25 and February 13, the orchestra performed five concerts in Spain, four in Germany, and three in Poland. This was the orchestra’s first major tour of Europe since 1995.

Among the orchestra’s other tours during his tenure are a successful trip to Taiwan and Japan (1990), eight sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, and two West Coast tours (in 1992 and 1997). In 1995 he led the orchestra in its first European tour since 1969. In June 1998, he and the orchestra, with pianist Barry Douglas, traveled to Puerto Rico to give two concerts at the prestigious Casals Festival.

Under his direction, the CSO released over twenty one recordings on the Telarc label, beginning with a 1987 recording of the music of Falla (A Stereo Review "Record of the Year"). Other highly praised releases include music of Wagner, Respighi, Strauss, Bruckner, Bizet, Franck, and Mahler. February 1997 brought Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, and Symphony No. 3, released in 1998, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording. A highly acclaimed recording of Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome, and Metamorphoseon Modi XII was released in April 2000, and a world premiere recording of Mahler’s 10th Symphony in the new revised edition by Remo Mazzetti, Jr., was released in October 2000. In March 2001 Telarc released a new recording of Symphony No. 2 and Vocalise by Rachmaninoff. Upcoming is a disc containing the first and last symphonies by Shostakovich (Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 15) for release in July; and the recording sessions for a final project, of works by Turina and Debussy.

A busy guest conductor here and abroad, Jesus Lopez-Cobos has led the major orchestras of New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Oslo, Gothenberg and Israel, as well as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He completed his eleventh and final season as director of the prestigious Lausanne Chamber Orchestra and in his fourth season as Permanent Conductor of Paris’ Orchestre Francais de Jeunes, a summer education/performance program for French youth. He conducted thirty new productions at the Berlin Opera during his tenure there and in 1987 led that company in performances of the Ring in Japan, the first time Wagner's complete four-opera cycle had been performed there. He subsequently conducted the Berlin Ring Cycle productions for sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in 1989.

A native of Spain, Maestro Lopez-Cobos studied at the University of Granada and Madrid, where he took a doctorate in philosophy. He had received no formal musical training when he began conducting the university choir, but his talent was obvious and he began studying conducting with Franco Ferrara in Italy and later in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky. He took first prize in the 1968 Besancon Competition, making his European orchestral debut in 1969 at the Prague Festival and his operatic debut that same year in Venice. His North American operatic debut came in 1972 with the San Francisco Opera and in 1978 he made his North American orchestral debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Jesus Lopez-Cobos was the first ever recipient of the Prince of the Asturias Award, presented by the Spanish government and the Royal House for outstanding contribution to the arts (1981). He also received the Distinguished Service Medal First Class (1989) from the German government for his contributions to that country's musical culture; and an Honorary Doctorate (1996) from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.