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Giancarlo Guerrero (born March 14, 1969, in Managua, Nicaragua and raised in Costa Rica) began his musical training as a member of the Costa Rica Youth Symphony. By the time he was in high school, Guerrero played timpani, blocks, snare drum, triangle and cymbals with the Costa Rican National Symphony.[1] He received his bachelor's degree in percussion from Baylor University in Texas and his master's degree in conducting from Northwestern University in Illinois. Mr. Guerrero's principal conducting teachers were Michael Haithcock, Stephen Heyde, Victor Yampolsky and Guillermo Scarabino.
Guerrero began his conducting career as Music Director of the Tachira Symphony in San Cristobal, Venezuela, 800 southwest miles of Caracas. He served as Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1999 to 2004, and has held the position of Music Director of the Eugene (Oregon) Symphony since September 2002. Guerrero will become Music Director of the Nashville Symphony beginning with the 2009/10 season (serving as Music Director Designate during the 2008/09 season).
The American Symphony Orchestra League chose Mr. Guerrero as one of five participants in the League's February 2001 Conductor Preview hosted by the Chicago Civic Orchestra, which led to an invitation from the orchestra to appear on their 2001-02 season. In June 2004, he was awarded the Helen M. Thompson Award by the American Symphony Orchestra League, which recognizes outstanding achievement among young conductors nationwide.
In the summer of 2001 Guerrero made his debut with the National Symphony in Washington, DC, returned in the summer of 2002, and made his subscription debut with the orchestra in 2002-03. As a guest conductor, Mr. Guerrero made a highly successful debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in May 2006 substituting on short notice for Lorin Maazel to lead an all-orchestral program of music from Wagner’s “Ring” cycle. In 2008 he will make return appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra both in Cleveland and on tour including the orchestra's residency in Miami. He has also recently made successful debuts with several other major American orchestras including the the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl (where he was immediately reengaged by the Philharmonic to conduct two programs at the Bowl in July 2005), the Baltimore Symphony (July 2006), Dallas Symphony Orchestra (where he returned to lead the orchestra on a tour of Texas), Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony.
Also in demand in both Central and South America, Mr. Guerrero conducts regularly in Venezuela, both with the Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar as well as the Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela. His debut at the Casals Festival with Yo-Yo Ma and the Puerto Rico Symphony in 2005 was followed by a return in February 2006 for a performance of the Verdi Requiem. He also made his debut at the Teatro Colon in Argentina in 2005. Equally at home with opera, Mr. Guerrero works regularly with the Costa Rican Lyric Opera conducting new productions of Carmen, La Bohme and Rigoletto. In 2007 he made his European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and his UK debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2008 Guerrero will lead the Australian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's chamber opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival.
On September 5, 2007 the Nashville Symphony named Guerrero as its future Music Director beginning with the 2009/100 season. He was unanimously selected to be the Symphony's 8th Music Director by a 12-member search committee, half of whom were musicians from the orchestra. Mr. Guerrero developed a relationship with the Nashville Symphony through four subscription engagements during the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons and was the first guest conductor to lead the Symphony following the death of its last Music Director, Kenneth Schermerhorn, in 2005. He will continue to serve as the Music Director of Oregon's Eugene Symphony through the 2008/09 season. Under the terms of an initial 5 year contract extending through 2012/13, Mr. Guerrero will conduct 10 weeks of concerts with the Nashville Symphony in 2008/09 as Music Director Designate and 14 weeks as Music Director beginning in 2009/10.