Pedro Halffter Cato is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 conductor. He is artistic director of the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra

Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra

The Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1990, is a symphony orchestra based in Seville, Spain.The Orchestra is the resident orchestra of the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. Its first music director was Vjekoslav Šutej. Another music directors include Klaus Weise and Alain Lombard....

, music director of the Teatro de la Maestranza

Teatro de la Maestranza

The Teatro de la Maestranza is an opera house located in Seville, Spain.The theatre was conceived to be one of the main cultural venues of the Seville Expo '92 , and the first performance took place in 1991, shortly before the inauguration of the International Expo. The theatre was re-refurnished...

 (Seville) and Music Director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria in Las Palmas.

Born in Madrid, he studied conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, receiving a degree in 1995. He has been the recipient of the Jugend musiziert

Jugend musiziert

thumb|German stamp: 25 years of "Jugend musiziert"Jugend musiziert is a music competition for children and adolescents in Germany on regional, federal and national level.-Jugend musiziert in Germany:...

 Prize, Young Composers Prize of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council, a member of the International Music Council

International Music Council

The International Music Council was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization...

), Young Conductors Prize of the European Union, as well as grants from the Juventudes de Madrid and the Banco de España, and a Fulbright scholarship for composition studies in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.