InConcert - January 2020

CONDUCTORS
MUSIC DIRECTOR
GIANCARLO
GUERRERO
Martha & Bronson Ingram Music Director Chair
Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY®
Award-winning conductor now in his 11th
season as Music Director of the Nashville
Symphony. Guerrero is also Music Director of the
Wrocław Philharmonic at the National Forum of
Music in Poland and Principal Guest Conductor of
the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal. He
has been praised for his “charismatic conducting
and attention to detail” (Seattle Times) in “viscerally
powerful performances” (Boston Globe) that are
“at once vigorous, passionate and nuanced”
(BachTrack).
Through commissions, recordings and world
premieres, Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony
have championed the works of American composers
who are defining today’s musical landscape,
making Nashville a destination for contemporary
orchestral music. Guerrero has presented 11 world
premieres with the Nashville Symphony, including
the GRAMMY®-winning performance of Michael
Daugherty’s Tales of Hemingway and Terry Riley’s
The Palmian Chord Ryddle.
Guerrero’s rich discography with the Nashville
Symphony numbers 17 recordings, including
the 2019 Naxos release of Jonathan Leshnoff’s
Symphony No. 4 “Heichalos.” The work was
commissioned by the Nashville Symphony for the
Violins of Hope, a collection of restored instruments
that survived the Holocaust. This recording marks
the first time the instruments have been heard
on a commercially available album. Other albums
have been dedicated to the music of composers
as diverse as Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour,
Joan Tower and Béla Fleck.
During the 2019/20 season, Naxos will release
recordings of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Symphony No. 4
and Christopher Rouse’s Concerto for Orchestra,
both recorded with the Nashville Symphony. As
part of his commitment to fostering contemporary
music, Guerrero, together with composer Aaron Jay
Kernis, guided the creation of Nashville Symphony’s
biennial Composer Lab & Workshop for young and
emerging composers.
Guerrero’s 2019/20 season will include return
engagements with the Boston Symphony,
Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo,
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg
Symphony, Frankfurt Opera and Museums
Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony. In
January 2020, Guerrero will conduct the Wrocław
Philharmonic on a 12-city North American tour.
Guerrero has appeared with prominent
North American orchestras, including those of
Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas,
Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles,
Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Seattle,
Toronto and Vancouver, as well as the National
Symphony Orchestra. He has developed a strong
international guest-conducting profile and has
worked in recent seasons with the Frankfurt Radio
Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, Deutsches
Radio Philharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique
de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic,
Residentie Orkest, NDR in Hannover, Orquesta
Sinfónica de Galicia and the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, as well as the Queensland Symphony
and Sydney Symphony in Australia. Guerrero
was honored as the keynote speaker at the 2019
League of American Orchestras conference,
where his address on transforming “inspiration
and innovation into meaningful action” was met
with a unified standing ovation.
Guerrero made his debut with Houston Grand
Opera in 2015 conducting Puccini's Madama
INCONCERT
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