A respected conductor, Juanjo Mena has led the BBC Philharmonic and is noted for his work in opera. In 2017, he became principal conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival. Juan José Mena, known as Juanjo Mena, was born on September 21, 1965, in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain's Basque-dominated Araba province. His brother Carlos is a noted countertenor. Juanjo studied at the Conservatorio Jesús Guridi in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and went on to the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid, taking courses in composition and orchestration with Carmelo Bernaola, and conducting with Enrique García Asensio. He traveled to Munich for further studies with Sergiu Celibidache. Returning to Basque country, he was asked by the Basque regional government to form a new youth orchestra and then became the associate conductor of the region's Euskadi Symphony Orchestra. Mena was named the principal conductor and artistic director of Spain's Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in 1999 and remained there until 2008. He also held guest conducting slots during this period, making his North American debut with the Baltimore Symphony in 2004. From 2007 to 2013, Mena was the principal guest conductor of the Bergen Symphony Orchestra in Norway. In 2011, he became the principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, with a three-year contract that was renewed for another three-year term. Mena was named the principal guest conductor of the Orquesta Nacional de España, and in 2017, after guest conducting appearances with major American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Houston Symphony, he became the principal conductor of the venerable Cincinnati May Festival of choral music. Mena has recorded with several of the orchestras with which he has been associated, beginning with recordings of music by Jesús Guridi and Andrés Isasi for the Naxos label in the 2000s decade. He led the BBC Philharmonic in a series of recordings for Chandos, including a 2019 reading of Falla's La vida breve. In 2021, a BBC Philharmonic recording appeared with Mena backing percussionist Colin Currie in a percussion concerto by HK Gruber. Mena has won several major Spanish awards, including the Premio Nacional de Música (2016).