All the lights are down in the empty hall, except those on the Pikes Peak Center stage, where Josep Caballé-Domenech waits for the four tiny cameras trained on his face to begin recording.“I have a camera, too, if you need another,” he said, laughing.The intense documentation — by The Gazette, the Colorado Springs Philharmonic and the Pikes Peak Center — is understandable. It’s been more than a decade since the local orchestra had a new music director.Caballé-Domenech makes his season debut Saturday with “Titan,” a concert featuring Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.You might already know his story, which is practically lore by now: Caballé-Domenech, 38, did not come to the philharmonic as a candidate in the year-plus search to replace veteran music director Lawrence Leighton Smith. He was catapulted onto that list of five, though, when the freelance conductor stepped in for an ailing Smith and wowed audiences. He was hired in May.Ask him to pronounce his name and he laughs. The joe-sep kah-bah-yay-doe-men-ik rolling off his tongue like one long, heavily greased word.“If it’s too difficult, I think people have been calling me JCD already,” he said.That seems to be pure Caballé-Domenech, who is funny, courtly and deeply knowledgeable, passionate and opinionated — especially about his repertoire. His interpretation of orchestral work verges on purist, and his bottom-line vision for this orchestra is all about buzz.“Everyone who will buy a ticket will know that this orchestra is exciting,” he told the cameras. “They will see an orchestra on fire. That’s what I really want.”The Gazette: You came to the Springs as the city was parting with Lawrence Leighton Smith, who had become increasingly debilitated with illness. But this is also a new beginning. What are people saying about your tenure?Josep Caballé-Domenech: I have the feeling everyone is very, very excited about what’s happening here. The musicians and the orchestra and everyone involved with the orchestra are ready. … It’s, like, OK, we have been for two years on a search committee and finally it comes to an end, and it’s a good end. Now, we can start working on a direction we really want to work.Gazette: When he left the phil, Smith had variously been a musician, conductor and teacher for about a half-century. As a relatively young music director, what do you bring?JCD: My passion about my music, my passion about what I’m doing. I always say that when I will conduct pieces, I may be wrong or I may be right, but in any case, I’ll be 100 percent me.Obviously, there’s someone who can sit and say, “Oh, that’s not the first of Mahler I was expecting.” But that is his problem, not mine, you know?I have been already 15 years on the road with all the continents and working with lots of orchestras. So I think I can give a lot of experience as well. All the repertoire I do here is repertoire I’ve done many times. It’s not like I want to try something new and I come to Colorado Springs to do it. It’s OK, what’s good for the community, what’s good for this orchestra? It has a real long-term vision. We’re starting now with Mahler 1, but I know what I’m going to do in five years already. … So all the pieces I program is to make the orchestra arrive there.Gazette: What about the concerts that you won’t be conducting? That’s, what, five Masterworks? Did you specifically pair them with the repertoire?JCD: Of course. I always try to get the best conductors that we can and we did. We got fantastic conductors. … They won’t change the philosophy behind the program and I think that’s important.Gazette: You were well booked when you were hired, weren’t you?JCD: Basically, conductors, we are booked between two and five years in advance. Big opera houses will book you three, four, five years in advance. Orchestras, due to the economical situation, they wait until the last moment — but at least one year in advance. … I’m very, very happy that it worked the opening week, the closing week and the week that Itzhak Perlman is here.Gazette: What makes all the intensity, the scheduling and the time away from your wife worth it?JCD: It’s the energy that I feel here. That’s what makes me come here with happiness and ready to do all the job I have to do. … We have a good orchestra. I have very good musicians, technically speaking and humanly speaking. And they are really excited about what we’re doing.  … The two concerts I did here were fantastic and I left Colorado Springs having a very good feeling. And it’s coming back again.Gazette: So, have you worked with Perlman before?JCD: I haven’t had the pleasure.Gazette: Is it a big deal for you? Or are artists just artists?JCD: No. I think it’s something special. My mother is a violin player. When I was a kid I went to the Barcelona concert hall to hear him many times. I mean, he was like the big star. … So, after 20 years, having the possibility of making music with him is like something very, very impressive to me. It’s going to be nice, I’m sure.Gazette: This will be the third program that you have worked on with the orchestra. What do you see that needs tweaking?JCD: There are a couple of things we have to work on. One of my visions, not with this orchestra, but my artistic visions is that, for me, it’s not Josep Caballé conducting whatever program with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. For me, if we play a piece by a composer, it has to sound like this composer. And if we play, in this program, another piece, it has to sound like this other composer.One of my goals is when someone will sit here and will hear “La Mer” from Debussy, they will really feel that we are a French orchestra playing. … And then, on the other half of the program, if we are playing Mahler 1, then they will hear the Berlin Philharmonic playing Mahler 1.There is a lot of new repertoire to bring to the orchestra, to the audience. Obviously, all the new repertoire that we’ll bring will have a reason; it’s not just because we just want to. They will be very interesting pieces.That’s why we buy tickets to new places. We want to go home having a new experience. It might be good; it might be great; it might be not so great. But it will be an experience.

Josep Caballe-Domenech Photo by