Giancarlo Guerrero

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 “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 becomes Music Director Laureate. Throughout his tenure, Guerrero has championed the works of prominent American composers; under his direction, the Nashville Symphony has commissioned and premiered nearly two dozen pieces and released twenty-one commercial recordings, which have garnered thirteen GRAMMY® nominations and six GRAMMY® Awards. This season, Guerrero conducts works by Mason Bates, Julia Wolfe, and C.F. Kip Winger to be recorded live for future release on Naxos.

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

This season also includes return engagements with the symphonies of San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Cincinnati, 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 recently appeared 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. He has worked with Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando program, which provides music education to promising young students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and co-created with Aaron Jay Kernis Nashville’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers. www.giancarlo-guerrero.com.