Roc Fargas i Castells, born in Barcelona, is 1. Kapellmeister at the Landestheater Detmold and a versatile conductor active in opera, ballet, and symphonic repertoire. With a background in historical performance practice and contemporary music, he brings a multifaceted approach to his work.
In the 2026/27 season, Fargas returns to the Hamburg State Opera to conduct John Neumeier’s ballet A Cinderella Story to the music of Prokofiev. Further return engagements include the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, alongside regular work with the Hessen State Youth Orchestra. At the Landestheater Detmold, his operatic and ballet productions include Handel’s Alcina, Zeller’s Der Vogelhändler, and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, alongside performances of Puccini’s La Bohème, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Britten’s Peter Grimes.
In 2025, Fargas won First Prize, the Orchestra Prize, and the Audience Prize at the Maestro Borislav Ivanov Conducting Competition in Varna. He has conducted orchestras including the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, the Staatskapelle Weimar, and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, among others. Since 2023, Fargas has been actively engaged in Ukraine, conducting projects with Open Opera Ukraine, Kyiv Camerata, and the “Mriya” Orchestra, including leading the opening concert of the 2024 Kharkiv Music Festival in a bomb shelter.
Fargas read music at the University of Cambridge, before studying Historical Performance and Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, the latter under Prof. Sian Edwards. He then completed a Konzertexamen in Conducting at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik. He is a fellow of the German Music Council’s Conductors’ Forum and of the Akademie Musiktheater Heute of the Deutsche Bank Foundation.
