Guillermo Figueroa

Music Director and Conductor

Music Director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra since 2000, Guillermo Figueroa is also Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colorado and Principal Guest Conductor of the Puerto Rico Symphony.

Mr. Figueroa's intense, passionate musicianship and elegant technique have brought him international recognition. Critical acclaim followed the debuts of the Puerto Rico Symphony, under Figueroa's baton, at Carnegie Hall in 2003, the Kennedy Center in 2004 and Spain in 2005.

As a guest conductor he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of New Jersey, Memphis, Phoenix, Iceland, Colorado, Berkeley, Xalapa (Mexico), Tucson, Santa Fe, Toledo, Fairfax, and San Jose, as well as the Juilliard Orchestra, the Baltic Philharmonic in Poland, the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center and the New England Conservatory Orchestra. Upcoming debuts include the Orquesta de Cordoba in Spain, and the Orquesta del Teatro Argentino in La Plata (Buenos Aires).

Mr. Figueroa has collaborated with many of the leading artists of our time, including Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Placido Domingo, Joshua Bell, Olga Kern, Janos Starker, James Galway, Midori, Horacio Gutierrez, the Emerson String Quartet, Ben Hepner, Rachel Barton Pine, Pepe Romero, Elmar Oliveira, Barry Douglas, Jennifer Larmore, and Michelle De Young.

A Berlioz specialist, he created the most comprehensive Berlioz Festival in the United States in 2003 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Mr. Figueroa has conducted the premieres of works by many important composers, such as Roberto Sierra, Mario Davidovsky, Ernesto Cordero, Miguel del Aguila and Harold Farberman.

Also a renowned violinist, Figueroa is a Founding Member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. With this group he has been Concertmaster and soloist in performances throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and made over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.

As a soloist, he gave the world premiere of Mario Davidovsky's Concertino for Violin and Orchestra, written for him and Orpheus, in 1995 at Carnegie Hall. In 2007, he premiered Harold Farberman's Double Concerto, written for him, with the, American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. And in January of 2008, he gave the world premiere of Miguel del Aguila's Violin Concerto/The Journey of a Lifetime, commissioned by Figueroa and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.

For ten years, Figueroa was Concertmaster and guest conductor of the New York City Ballet. He has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards in California, Music from Angel Fire and the El Paso Pro Musica Chamber Festival.

Figueroa and his wife, violinist Valerie Turner, are the Founders and Artistic Directors of the acclaimed Festival de Musica Rondena chamber series in Albuquerque. As part of Puerto Rico's most distinguished musical family, he has appeared with the Figueroa Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center.

He has recorded Bartók's Three Violin Sonatas for the Eroica Classical label with pianist Robert Koenig, and an album of virtuoso violin music by Wieniawski, Sarasate and Kreisler for the NMSO label with pianist Ivonne Figueroa.

Mr. Figueroa studied with his father and uncle at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. At the Juilliard School his teachers were Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimir. His conducting studies were with Harold Farberman in New York.

For more information on Maestro Figueroa, visit guillermofigueroa.com.