Giancarlo Guerrero

Music Director Designate

Giancarlo Guerrero is a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor whose imaginative programming and “curatorial and interpretive creativity” (Chicago Tribune) draw out of his orchestras “exceptionally powerful and enchanting performances” (BBC Music Magazine). His contagious enthusiasm on the podium has led critics to praise his “clear and exacting beat and a gift for shifting between ferocity and tenderness” (San Francisco Chronicle) and his style that is “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (BachTrack).

The 2024-25 season marks Guerrero’s sixteenth and final season as Music Director of the Nashville Symphony, after which he will transition to the position of Music Director Laureate. Throughout his tenure, Guerrero has championed the works of prominent American composers through commissions, recordings, and world premieres.  Under his direction, the Nashville Symphony has commissioned and premiered nearly two dozen pieces – including works by Béla Fleck, Ben Folds, Jennifer Higdon, Hannibal Lokumbe, Terry Riley, and Victor Wooten – and released twenty-one commercial recordings, which have garnered eighteen GRAMMY® nominations and eleven GRAMMY® Awards across multiple categories. This season, Guerrero will conduct works by Mason Bates, Julia Wolfe, and C.F. Kip Winger in concerts to be recorded live for future release on Naxos.

As part of his commitment to fostering the work of contemporary composers, Guerrero, together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, guided the creation of Nashville Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers.

Guerrero has been tapped to serve as Music Director of Sarasota Orchestra beginning in the 2025-26 season; he will conduct two programs with the organization in the 2024-25 season, serving as Music Director Designate.

This season also includes return engagements with major American orchestras including San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Boston Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony with international engagements including those with Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil, Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie in Saarbrücken, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra.

Guerrero has also appeared in recent seasons with prominent North American orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, and those of Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montréal, Philadelphia, Toronto, Vancouver, and Houston.  Internationally he has worked with the Deutches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, New Zealand Symphony as well as Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony in Australia.

Guerrero recently completed a six-season tenure as Music Director of the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. With that orchestra, Guerrero made several recordings, including the Billboard chart-topping Bomsori: Violin on Stage on Deutsche Grammophon and albums of repertoire by Szymanowski, Brahms, Poulenc and Jongen.

Guerrero previously held posts as the Principal Guest Conductor of both The Cleveland Orchestra, Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Symphony in Lisbon, Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, and Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Born in Nicaragua, Guerrero immigrated during his childhood to Costa Rica, where he joined the local youth symphony. He studied percussion and conducting at Baylor University in Texas and earned his master’s degree in conducting at Northwestern. Given his beginnings in civic youth orchestras, Guerrero is particularly engaged with conducting training orchestras and has worked with the Curtis School of Music, Colburn School in Los Angeles, National Youth Orchestra (NYO2) and Yale Philharmonia, as well as with the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides an intensive music education to promising young students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. More at www.giancarlo-guerrero.com.