The orchestral conductor Jesús López Cobos was born in Toro, Zamora on the 25th of February 1940. After his initial musical studies at the Málaga Conservatory, he later continued with them at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, at the same time as he studied at university. Graduating in Philosophy and Arts in 1964, and with the diploma in Composition in 1966, he began his career at the head of the University choirs, being awarded various prizes as the founder and conductor of the University Choir of Madrid. Later, he began studying Orchestral Conducting in Germany, finishing these studies in New York with a grant from the Banco Urquijo.

In 1969 he won first prize in the international course on Orchestral Conducting at Besançon, France, for which reason he was invited to conduct in the Festival of Prague concert in the same year. In 1969 he would also make his debut as conductor of the orchestra of the Opera of Venice. This double orientation, towards symphonic and operatic music would be from that moment on a constant in his professional life.

In Italy he worked for a year as second conductor of the "Fenice" of Venice, directing various operas as a substitute for the maestro Peter Maag. In 1970 he conducted in Spain the National Orchestra and the City of Barcelona Orchestra, and also gave other concerts in Prague, Zurich, Bologna, Trieste, Venice, Naples and Munich. Back in Germany, he was hired by the Berlin "Deutsch Oper" until 1975, from when on he began to work with, and be invited by, the most outstanding orchestras in the world.

López Cobos conducted, among others, the philharmonic orchestras of Vienna, Munich, Oslo and Israel, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Danish and Hamburg radio station orchestras, the radio symphonic orchestras of Bavaria and Berlin, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Munich and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra of London. His introduction in the United States took place in 1978, when he took charge of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles, and subsequently those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

After having achieved the greatest of successes in opera and symphonic music, he began in 1981 a five-year contract as the general musical director of the "Deutsche Oper" of Berlin. Furthermore, from 1981 to 1986 he was the chief guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

From 1983 on and until he left the post on the 3rd November 1989, López Cobos was titular conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra.

In 1988 Jesús López Cobos was chosen as the new conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra -which he had conducted previously on various occasions, in concert and for recordings-, a role which he began to perform in 1990, to do which he had to leave conducting the Opera of Berlin. Of all his activities abroad, the conductor only maintains the post of titular conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with which he has already obtained the Grand Record Prize for his recording of "El tricornio", by Manuel de Falla.

In the field of musicological research, he has carried out and subsequently recorded a revision of the operas "Lucia de Lammermoor" and "Othello", by Rossini, having likewise made his debut in the Scala of Milan, in 1979, with his own revision of Rossini´s "Moses". To the overwhelming activity of this Spanish conductor, the recording field must also be added: at the head of the most prestigious orchestras in the world, numerous recordings of the most important writers and composers of opera and symphonic music.