Santiago Serrate (Sabadell, 1975) began his musical education at the Conservatoire Superior of Barcelona where he studied double bass, piano and composition. He was also for a double bass pupil of Ludwig Streicher at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid where in 1998 he was awarded a diploma (presented by H.M. the Queen) for the most dedicated student of his year. He studied conducting with Antoni Ros Marbà, Arturo Tamayo, George Hurst and Otto-Werner Mueller.
He made his debut as a conductor at the age of 16 with the San Agustín boy’s chorus of which he was a member and later official pianist/organist. He also won the first prize in 1994 Double bass at the "Germans Claret" strings competition. He has been member of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, the Youth Orchestra of Catalonia, the RIAS Youth Orchestra of Berlin and the Spanish RTV Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 after a conducting competition he was appointed assistant conductor of the Madrid State Youth Orchestra for two seasons.
He conducts the most important Spanish orchestras and theatres frequently and also in Portugal, Greece, Germany Italy, China and México. His great commitment to contemporary music is very strong with concerts, recordings and 107 world premières and 24 national premières with the Modus Novus and the Sax Ensemble.
In the Opera and Ballet world he has conducted in the Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Galicias's Auditorium, in Mallorca's Teatre Principal in Madrid's Teatro Real and Teatro de la Zarzuela in Opera for Catalonia, in the Palau de Les Arts of Valencia and in the Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza, with the Ballet de Lyon and in the Theater Chemnitz. He had conducted the first Spanish Performances of L'Ape Musicale by Lorenzo Da Ponte, il Prigioniero by Dallapiccola and Sarka by Janacek with a great success. He had conducted and recorded thanks to a BBVA Foundation Leonardo Grantee, the world first performance of Tomás Marco's chamber opera TENORIO in the El Escorial Music Festival. Recently he had premièred Jorge Muñiz opera Fuenteovejuna for the Oviedo Opera in the Campoamor's Theatre with a great success.
In his opera repertoire are 71 different tittles working with artists like Plácido Domigo, Jonas Kaufmann, Bryn Terfel, Juan Pons, Roberto Alagna, Dolora Zajic, René Pape, Sondra Radvanovsky, Carlos Álvarez, L.eo Nucci, Pretty Yende, María Orán and Gregory Kunde among others. He had been worked closey as assitant for Pinchas Steinberg and Michel Plasson and for the composers Cristóbal Halffter and Johannes Kalitzke in different projects.
He has been a member of the jury of the Yamaha-Hazen Intercentros Competition, the Grandstand for Young Composers and Performers of the Sax Ensemble Foundation, the Ferrer-Salat Foundation Music Scholarships and the Leonardo Scholarships to Researchers and Cultural Creators of the BBVA Foundation.
He regularly gives masterclasses and conferences at the International University of La Rioja, at the Complutense University and the Madrid Royal Conservatory of Music, Sabadell Musical Youth and at the Royal Circle of Farmers, the Association of Friends of the Opera and at the University of Seville.
He is concretation teacher in theFundación Ramón Areces "Alfredo Kraus" Voice Chair and a instrument Sponsor of the Reina Sofía High School of Music., teacher in the Liceu Superior Conservatory of Music, in the "Antoni Ros Marbà" international orchestral conducting course, and is musical director, patron and teacher of the conducting course of the Sax Ensemble Foundation. Santiago Serrate is currently the director of the BBVA Foundation Music Season 2022-2023.